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By 
February 12, 2021 at 09:18 AM
BNY Mellon, the country’s oldest bank, is moving into the cryptocurrency market, creating a new unit to provide custody and administrative services for investment clients.
It is the first global bank to do so. The Digital Assets unit, led by Mike Demissie, head of Advanced Solutions, is currently developing a multi-asset digital custody and administration platform that will accommodate both digital and traditional assets.
“Growing client demand for digital assets, maturity of advanced solutions, and improving regulatory clarity present a tremendous opportunity for us to extend our current service offerings to this emerging field,” said Roman Regelman, CEO of asset servicing and head of digital at BNY Mellon, in a statement. The bank expects to begin offering digital custody services later this year, pending “further evaluations and approvals,” according to Regelman.
The OCC Letter
The BNY announcement comes after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an interpretive letter in July that said federally chartered banks and thrifts — BNY Mellon is a federally chartered bank — may provide custody services for crypto assets.
