FV Bank, a global digital bank based in Puerto Rico, today announced that it has received permission from the Puerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF) to provide custody services for digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. FV Bank will begin offering custody services seamlessly integrated into its digital banking platform in early 2021. 

Institutional and retail customers will be able to open an account with fiat and digital asset balances with FV Bank, providing for secure custodial storage of digital assets and seamless exchange to fiat. The digital assets custodial service will also be compatible with FV Net, the bank’s internal real-time fiat settlement platform that opens up powerful institutional trade settlement services.   

FV Bank account holders will be provided cryptocurrency deposit addresses for each digital asset they wish to hold in their accounts. The digital assets will be managed in a secure and insured custodial account linked to their digital bank account. Services will be accessed through online and mobile banking applications.  

“We are very excited to be one of the first regulated international digital banks to offer integrated banking and digital asset custody services,” explained Miles Paschini, Chief Executive Officer at FV Bank. “FV Bank was founded to drive international banking through financial technology, as it is clear that cryptocurrencies and digital assets are going to be a significant part of global monetary expansion and investment product growth. With this milestone, our vision to offer clients a seamless, fully-regulated banking and digital asset custodial services is coming to life.” 

Nitin Agarwal, Chief Revenue Officer, added: “FV Bank is proving to be a market leader in providing leading edge banking services like our upcoming digital asset custody service, and our FV Net settlement platform. In the last few months, we have seen a great demand for our banking services and many of our existing customers are looking for an easy and trustworthy way to invest in and securely hold digital assets. These products are proving to be very attractive to our international business, institutional investors  and retail customers. I anticipate the convergence of these products will drive growth in the bank for years to come.”

FV Bank is regulated by the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, Puerto Rico.