Over half the Banks in Switzerland want to offer Crypto to Clients within the next three years

Cryptocurrencies are beginning to receive a warm reception among Swiss banking institutions. According to a survey, more than half of banks in Switzerland are considering offering crypto investment services to their clients within the next three years.

Majority of Swiss banks plan to offer crypto investment products to clients

A survey conducted by Swiss firm Ernst & Young (EY) Limited among 90 executives of different Swiss banks has some highly optimistic news for crypto in Switzerland. EY’s Banking Barometer 2022 survey found that 55% of Swiss banks plan to launch crypto investment offerings to their clients. EY notes that the survey outcome is a deviation from the usual attitude of Swiss banks to crypto in the past.

While the Swiss banks have so far been largely reluctant to offer investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies, more than half of the banks surveyed are now planning to launch an offer to invest in crypto assets within the next three years (55%),  the report notes.

It adds that private banks were showing the greatest interest in offering crypto. Among the private banks surveyed, 68% of them plan on offering crypto investment services.

Even more impressive is that the opinion of the banks concerning crypto has become more positive. This is because 55% of them acknowledged that cryptocurrencies were not a fad and are here to stay. The banks do not also consider that their integration of crypto will affect their goal to become more sustainable.

Even the sustainability goals do not seem to prevent the banks from developing a corresponding crypto offer, EY added.

Much of this shift in sentiment among the banks has been engineered by their customers. According to the report, the majority of the banks want to spend 2022 focusing on meeting the financial and investment needs of their customers. And since customers are requesting crypto investment services, they are willing to offer the service.

The Swiss banking sector could be highly beneficial for crypto

Switzerland is noted as one of the world’s principal financial and banking centers. Swiss banks have an excellent reputation for the quality of their services the world over and contribute about 9.7% to gross value added to the Swiss economy.

Last year, Switzerland’s financial regulator also approved its first Crypto fund. The country has also seen a crop of FinTech banks offer crypto investment services already. Two of these crypto banks, SEBA and Sygnum, recently raised over $200 million in funding. The CEO of SEBA which raised $120 million, Guido Buehler, is bullish on Bitcoin. Buehler recently told CNBC that his bank sees Bitcoin reaching a price of $75,000 this year.

Market observers are noting that the new crop of crypto banks is putting the traditional banks that were part of EY’s survey under considerable pressure. According to Dinners editor, Rico Kutcher, traditional banks have their work cut out for them if they are going to integrate crypto.