South Africa’s Standard Bank, one of the largest banks in Africa, is closely monitoring advancements in cryptocurrencies but is exercising caution before entering the market.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Lungisa Fuzile, CEO of Standard Bank Group’s South Africa business, said:
“We move with the world, but you don’t want to be the leaders on some of these things. “You want to be fast followers.”
Standard Bank, which is the leading financial institution in Africa in terms of assets, intends to observe the progression of digital currencies while maintaining awareness of the associated risks rather than actively participating in the market.
“We are very interested, we manage our explorations carefully, we do them with heightened interest when we collaborate with our regulators and other banks in the system to understand them better,” Fuzile said.
Up until now, the majority of South Africa’s financial institutions have opted not to offer banking services to cryptocurrency platforms due to concerns regarding risks and the absence of well-defined regulations for digital assets within the country.
But in contrast to other African countries, the South African Reserve Bank has established working groups to investigate digital assets and has encouraged lenders to offer banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges. This move aims to provide the regulator with improved visibility into the sector and its operations.
In the meantime, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa is set to implement a requirement for cryptocurrency exchanges to obtain licenses by the end of 2023. This significant step will make South Africa, the most developed economy in Africa, the first on the continent to establish formal regulations specifically for cryptocurrencies.
As per the Finders Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, over 10% of South Africans possess some form of cryptocurrency token, indicating a notable level of ownership and adoption in the country.
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