Swiss bankers and regulators renounce their positions to join crypto

It seems that cryptocurrencies continue to gain importance, because once again the issue has been the subject of discussion at the G20 summit, a forum in which the 20 most industrialized countries of the world meet.

So far, there have always been 7 countries that are permanent members of the meeting, (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) that would be the most industrialized in the world, and the remaining positions are rotating for countries whose industrialization is emerging in a significant way.

Now, according to what was reported by different media, at the meeting of finance ministers of the G20 this year in Buenos Aires, the Swiss Federal Councilor and Finance Minister underscored Switzerland's position on cryptocurrencies, saying that assets digital networks offer great potential for financial services.

Switzerland has seen a wave of cryptography companies entering Zurich, the financial capital of Switzerland, and Zug, a Swiss city now known as the Crypto Valley, in the last two years. Many companies focused on the ecosystem are trying to operate as banks in the region, but avoid attracting attention with marketing strategies.

Crypto Finance Group, a company that has an office in Zug and most of its staff working in a luxury villa in Zurich called "Crypto Villa", is far from resembling a Silicon garage

The atmosphere in the village, which was visited by Bitcoin News, is largely a Swiss private bank. The board of directors of the Fintech company, founded in June 2017, includes Raymond J. Baer, ​​a relative of Swiss private bank Julius Baer, ​​and Jan Brzezek, former commercial manager of the president of UBS Asset Management.

"With our long experience in finance, we adopted the standards of traditional markets such as Equity or FX and created a next-generation order execution tool, which includes several tools for our Crypto Broker," said Jan Brzezek, the CEO and founder of Crypto Finance in an interview in Zurich for Bitcoin News.

Subsequently, Brzezek added that:

"Our strength lies in the fact that we have a great team. It's a good combination of technological guys and people who come from the Swiss financial industry. That's why we can easily communicate with all the big financial intermediaries and regulators, because we speak the same language. "

Many Swiss banks are prudent nowadays, since they do not want to take risks that involve a stain in their financial history. "Despite the great crisis that occurred with the issue of the taxation of US assets, Switzerland still represents 25% of the global offshore market.

This means that Swiss banks manage 25% of all cross-border assets processed around the world, a very high volume for a small country. Switzerland is strong but humble.

There is a lot of talent and knowledge for the development of these new technologies and their application to financing "said Jassine Ben Hamida, the former market leader of Julius Baer, ​​and former head of financial institutions in the emerging market at Credit Suisse, who is now officially involved in national cryptocurrency projects.

"Switzerland is a very diversified nation, each bank decides what its activity is. And where do you want to go, "he said.

From the judicial point of view, many global companies that come to Switzerland look at their legal stability, explained Marc Walpoth, a Swiss lawyer who previously worked in the Intensive Banking Supervision division at Finma from 2014 to 2017. Walpoth is now also fully involved in the encryption business.

"Finma, the supervisory authority of the Swiss financial market, is very stable with respect to regulations and is quite flexible," he said. "Finma was created six years ago, rewrote and created new laws, however, Swiss banks are completely independent of the Government. They decide the activities they wish to undertake, in coherence with the financial regulator. Which is different in many countries, "Walpoth explained.

"It would not be acceptable in Switzerland for a federal councilor to give an order to banks to accept cryptography companies. No politician in Switzerland would do it, and Finma would not accept it either, "he explained. "Switzerland is a country where regulators are very flexible and exchange many dialogues with companies. That is why we have many entrepreneurs, usually inclined to take risks, because the political and judicial framework is quite flexible. This is deeply rooted in the Swiss culture. "

Now, returning with the former banker, before joining the cryptographic space, Jan Brzezek worked on innovation projects and proof of concepts, issuing bonds in Blockchain within UBS. While he was in office, he said he worked at USC (Utility Settlement Coin) in consortia with other global banks, such as Barclays and Credit Suisse.

"Theoretically, you no longer need a bank for many of the tasks you have been doing," he explained. "The core competence of a bank is to offer clients custody of their assets, so banks will now build custody solutions. The question is not whether they are going to do that, but when. " Some believe that Switzerland will achieve this goal by the end of 2018.

"I felt like Alice in Wonderland falling into the rabbit hole when I started to understand Bitcoin," said Brzezek, now it's up to you, if you want to stay in the traditional world, you're free to believe that everything will remain as it is. .

Magic does not happen when you stay in your comfort zone, he said. Many bankers chose to adapt to where the money is. "Banks put their feet in the water, and they get a little experience, and as soon as they understand how it works, they come in, because there's a lot of money, interests and customers there."

In the last 12 months, Finma, the banking and financial regulator of Switzerland, has clarified what can and can not be done, with crypto. In September 2017 and February of this year, Finma published a report that clarified how the Swiss law classifies ICOs.

"The interesting point," says Yassine Ben Hamida, the former banker, "is that the Swiss have not created a new law, but they made some clarifications about existing laws and regulations," he explained.

Cryptocurrencies, tokens and ICO are considered securities, and in Switzerland, to manipulate securities as an intermediary, the regulator requires a broker's license, which currently nobody has in the national encryption industry but which many are trying to negotiate with Finma.

SIX, the main Swiss exchange, announced that it would establish a market for cryptocurrencies, in particular for all the chips that are considered securities. "SIX is owned by Swiss banks, so is not it interesting to see that despite the lack of enthusiasm for cryptography that Swiss banks seem to show, SIX has its backing to build a platform for digital assets?" Said Yassine Ben Hamida for Bitcoin News.

"Many banks officially say that they do not do cryptography, but behind the scenes, in front of their clients, they are actually very active," said a source close to the matter.

Major media often reported that Swiss banks did not support cryptography, or that they did not grant authorization to companies working with ICO to create corporate accounts.

"I do not think this is really true," said Yassine Ben Hamida, "Switzerland is quite strict in terms of regulations, particularly in terms of money laundering. But we are seeing a clear professionalization in terms of encryption, and banks began to accept companies that work with cryptocurrencies or ICOs, "he added.

There are banks in Geneva and Zurich that, according to reports, allow companies to have cryptocurrency funds. "This is developing now because there is a willingness to professionalize the industry," added Ben Hamida.