The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank), the country’s largest bank, has apparently postponed its planned in-app crypto trading trial, without specifying when it would restart. According to the sources, Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn stated on May 19, 2022 that while the bank is working on consumer input, comprehensive crypto regulation is required before moving beyond the test phase.
Following the collapse of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin UST, as well as the broader crypto market price drop, CommBank has halted its test programme. Comyn remarked during a tech briefing earlier this week:
“As events of the last week have reinforced, it is clearly a very volatile sector that remains an enormous amount of interest. But alongside that volatility and awareness and I guess the scale, certainly globally, you can see there is a lot of interest from regulators and people thinking about the best way to regulate that”.
The Australian banking giant revealed its intentions to provide clients digital asset services in November 2021, in conjunction with crypto exchange Gemini and blockchain analytics startup Chainalysis. Over six million users of its banking app will be able to purchase, trade, and store up to ten cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and bitcoin cash with the addition of new functionality.
While the pilot was set to commence in a few weeks, CommBank noted that it will expand its crypto offerings in 2022. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) had yet to approve the bank’s intended product as of April 2022, citing a “bunch of requirements” that the financial institution must follow.
