Barclays Officially Ties Up With Cryptocurrency Exchange Coinbase

British multinational bank, Barclays has on Wednesday, officially decided to extend its financial services to Coinbase, which is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges.This has been done in order to provide faster payment schemes to its customers. This has been the first ever alliance between a UK bank and a cryptocurrency exchange. The 

The news of Barclay’s collaborating with Coinbase came in yesterday from CNBC. Many traditional lenders have otherwise ben reluctant to work with cryptocurrencies due to their anonymity and potential for use in laundering money. An e-money license from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), also announced on Tuesday, helped get the deal done which will eventually aid the Faster Payments Scheme (FPS). This e-money license will extend to 23 countries within the European Union.

Also Read: IndusInd Bank Collaborates With Ripple To Facilitate Cross-Border Remittance

What’s in the store for users?

Previously, for payments, the UK users had to get their transactions processed via an Estonian Bank which could take up to days, affecting the user relations, The Faster Payment scheme promises will simplify the topping up and withdrawal methods from Coinbase, leading to transactions processing much easier and faster.

Zeeshan Feroz, U.K. CEO at Coinbase, said,

“U.K. customers will benefit from faster, safer and seamless bank transfers. We will start with a pilot, giving a small number of institutional users access to Faster Payments. In the coming weeks, we will begin rolling out to all U.K. customers, making the Coinbase experience increasingly easier.”

He also mentioned that  EU grew “twice as fast as any of our other markets in 2017″ and the U.K. is its largest market in the bloc. He said that the company plans to expand its London time by almost eight times by the end of 2018.

The top up of money may have been an easy task for the UK users, but the major problem lied in the withdrawal of funds, when the currency had to be subjected to a lengthy process, where money was converted to Euros and then to Pounds. Thus, exchange rate charges were problematic to the users.

Also Read: Coinbase Becomes The First Bitcoin Startup Unicorn

Concern from Regulators

Most of the UK based financial authorities have been extremely cautious of engaging into cryptocurrency exchanges owing to the frauds and scams the digital currency is capable of pulling off.

A group of British lawmakers launched an inquiry into digital currencies last month to look at the threats posed to consumers, businesses and the government.

Also Read: Bank in Liechtenstein Allows Clients To Directly Invest In Cryptocurrencies

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