Bitpanda and Raiffeisen Unit Agree to Offer Crypto for Banking Customers

Crypto exchange Bitpanda and a Vienna-based unit of Raiffeisen Bank said they are working together to offer crypto to the lender’s customers, according to a Wednesday statement.

The two have signed a letter of intent to cooperate, and will have finished evaluating the offer by the end of the year, said a statement by the lender.

“Examination of the partnership with Bitpanda aims to add an innovative, secure aspect to our product range and to enable all customers to easily accumulate wealth,” said Michael Höllerer, general director of Raiffeisenlandesbank NÖ-Wien, which groups the bank’s operations in the Austrian capital and surrounding region.

In February, a survey published by the European Central Bank suggested that lenders’ crypto activities were “insignificant” and the underlying distributed-ledger technology is “barely used.”

Analysts in both the crypto and traditional finance sectors have been hopeful that a new European Union law known as the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation will encourage institutional adoption.