According to Noel Quinn, CEO of HSBC, crypto services will no longer be offered by the bank giant. Noting that HSBC is more negative on crypto than other banks, the executive stressed: “I do worry about the sustainability of the valuations of crypto.”
CEO says HSBC won’t get into crypto
The chief executive of HSBC, Noel Quinn, talked about his bank’s cryptocurrency stance in an interview with CNBC-TV18 last week. He said:
As a bank, we’re not getting into the crypto world, crypto trading, crypto exchanges.
Emphasizing that cryptocurrencies are too volatile, the HSBC chief said: “I do worry about the sustainability of the valuations of crypto and I have done for a while. I’m not going to predict where it will go in the future.”
Quinn explained why HSBC was more hostile to crypto than the other banks. He said:
It was a product and I doubted its viability today. So that’s why HSBC is more negative on crypto than other banks.
In May last year, Quinn told Reuters: “I view bitcoin as more of an asset class than a payments vehicle, with very difficult questions about how to value it on the balance sheet of clients because it is so volatile.”
He added: “Given the volatility, we are not into bitcoin as an asset class … We are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth management business.”
As for stablecoins, Quinn said at the time: “For similar reasons, we’re not rushing into stablecoins.” He explained that stablecoins “do have some reserve backing behind them to address the stored value concerns, but it depends on who the sponsoring organization is, plus the structure and accessibility of the reserve.”
HSBC Canada notified clients last April of a change in its crypto policy. The company stated it wouldn’t allow the purchase or trade of virtual currencies products. Clients couldn’t buy Microstrategy stock (MSTR – US) via HSBC InvestDirect.
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