Julius Baer is expanding its crypto wealth management services in Dubai, marking the firm’s first major digital-assets push beyond the borders of its native Switzerland.
The Swiss private bank’s Middle Eastern subsidiary JBME will apply imminently for “a digital assets license variation” on top of its existing permissions with the Dubai Financial Services Authority, it said in a statement, which would allow the company to arrange and provide advice and custodial services on digital assets like Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies.
Julius Baer views the United Arab Emirates as a “key geography,” the bank’s head of digital assets development Jonathan Hayes said in an interview, citing increased economic development in the region.
In Switzerland where the bulk of its crypto activity sits, Julius Baer recently began offering so-called lombard lending to select crypto clients, Hayes said, allowing customers to borrow against digital assets custodied with the bank. One of the first private banks to launch such a service for crypto, the bespoke offering is presently limited to those with diversified portfolios that also include traditional assets.
