Another Large Brazil Bank Goes Into Crypto

The third largest privately owned bank in Brazil is about to open crypto world for its clients.

The Santander Brazil CEO Mario Leao announced during an interview to a local newspaper Folha de S. Paulo that the bank plans to offer services related to cryptocurrency trading during the coming months. He shared very few details, promising to reveal more information closer to their next quarterly report.

“We recognize that it is a market that is here to stay, and it is not necessarily a reaction to competitors positioning themselves, it is simply a view that our client has demand for this type of asset, so we have to find the most correct and educational way to do it.” Mario Leao, Santander Brazil CEO

The competitor he mentions is probably Nubank, that has launched crypto services just a couple of months earlier. The banks are comparable in their sizes, providing banking services to about 55 million customers each. By the way, Nubank reached 1 million crypto users within one month after starting to offer crypto services, exceeding their target to make one million active users in a year.

Notably, at the same time, Santander branches in the UK forbid any payments from Santander accounts to Binance, thus cutting off one of the largest crypto exchanges for their customers.