Key Takeaways:
- The CEO of Starling, a digital bank backed by Goldman Sachs, has ratcheted up her anti-crypto rhetoric, continuing to call digital currencies a danger to payment infrastructure security.
- When asked if Starling would ever offer cryptocurrency, Boden said it was improbable in the next few years, noting that crypto companies still have a long way to go in terms of anti-money laundering control mechanisms.
- Boden claims that the bank spends far more time protecting customers from fraudsters than promoting cryptocurrency.
Anne Boden, the founder and CEO of challenger bank Starling, heavily criticised the digital currency environment, demonstrating how uninterested she is in the rising financial advancement. Boden said crypto is “very dangerous” because it poses a massive risk to the traditional payment power grid, speaking at the Money 20/20 fintech conference in Amsterdam on Tuesday.
The bank is based in the United Kingdom and provides fee-free checking accounts and loans via an app. Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Investments are among the firm’s investors. It was last valued privately at ÂŁ2.5 billion ($3.1 billion).
Boden has direct knowledge of how the crypto industry’s advent is influencing the economic structure, as her company is a participant in the digital payments ecosystem.
Boden explained, “A lot of [crypto] wallets are being connected directly to payment schemes.” “This is a threat to the global security of our payment systems.”
While some institutions, such as Starling Bank, have yet to ride the crypto waggon, major players in the global payments ecosystem, such as Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL), Mastercard Inc (NYSE: MA), and Revolut, have all incorporated cryptocurrencies in some way.
This is not the first instance for Boden to give the “cautionary” talk about the risks of the crypto world. She has previously raised concerns about the threat of consumers becoming victims of fraud as a result of cryptocurrency investments.
The Starling chief stated on Tuesday that “customers are being conned.” “We spend far more time trying to protect customers from scammers than we do trying to promote cryptocurrency.”
Boden believes that these assets are also in a bubble, and that they will not be viable in the long run due to the environmental problems they induce.
Anne retweeted a tweet asking if Starling will offer cryptocurrency anytime soon; given her anti-crypto stance, her response is unsurprising. She replied, “Perhaps, but not yet.” Rather than promoting digitalasset products, our priority is to protect customers from cryptocurrency fraud.“
Netizens such as @BitcoinNinja2 believe that the crypto revolution is unavoidable. This user cites Macy’s as his ground of reasoning , stating to Think about what would happen if Macy’s was asked in 1997 if they intended to sell their products on the internet and said “maybe.”
Some users, such as @efiminzer, disagree with Boden’s statement, claiming that crypto simply replaces existing payment systems with an improved one.
Companies that provide cryptocurrency services, according to Boden, still have a lengthy way to go in terms of having to implement anti-money laundering (AML) verifications. While this is the popular view of crypto firms, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom has also stated that challenger banks are not doing much to enact anti-money laundering (AML) control systems.
The Financial Conduct Authority released the findings of an evaluation into financial crime controls at many challenger banks in the United Kingdom.
The FCA did not name any companies, but stated that the focus of its investigation was on six challenger banks, 50 percent of which were digital banks. According to Starling Bank, it was one of the lenders under investigation by the regulator.
