The Portuguese Central Bank, Banco de Portugal, which is the competent authority responsible for registering entities as Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASP) added Bison Bank into the mix, making it Portugal’s first bank to provide virtual asset services for crypto.
Bison Bank has registered “Bison Digital Assets” with Banco de Portugal, which will operate under the Bison Digital brand and be fully owned by Bison Bank as a VASP.
Bison Digital Assets will be built from the ground up, and it is to be the first entity in Portugal owned by a bank and allowed by the banking supervisor to hold and facilitate crypto trading.
The division will market its crypto services to high-net-worth customers and will provide them with “a new and broader set of products and services”.
Bison Bank, which is entirely owned by a Chinese private equity firm based in Hong Kong, offers wealth management, depositary, and investment banking services to its clients.
Banco de Portugal registers the following activities:
- Exchange services between virtual assets and fiat currencies or between one or more forms of virtual assets
- Transfer services of virtual assets
- Safekeeping and/or administration of virtual assets, including private encrypted keys.
Portugal has been regarded as a crypto-friendly country and a tax haven for cryptocurrency. The Central Bank licenced two cryptocurrency exchanges, Criptoloja and Mind The Coin, to operate as VASPs in June last year.
