SC ventures, a leading asset service provider, has announced that Zodia Custody is now registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), according to media reports. It is also the innovation and venture arm of Standard Chartered and Northern Trust. The registration has enabled Zodia Custody to provide its services to the clients as a crypto asset business.
It is also one of the nine crypto asset businesses that have been granted the FCA approval under the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations and will initially provide safekeeping for the most commonly traded cryptocurrencies – bitcoin and ethereum, along with XRP, litecoin and bitcoin cash.
Maxime De Guillebon, Chief Executive Officer, Zodia Custody, told the media, “ Zodia Custody marks an exciting development for the institutional custody market. We deliver bank-grade crypto asset custody to a standard expected of world-leading global custodians, having been developed with long-established best practices and regulatory compliance in mind. By leveraging the best practices of Standard Chartered and Northern Trust, we give institutional clients the comfort that their and their investors’ assets are kept in a manner that is aligned with the more traditional asset markets. This underpins our mission to increase the accessibility of the crypto asset market for a wider institutional audience.”
Zodia’s registration with FCA means its business is now supervised under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017. This has also brought crypto assets into scope in January 2020 and it has been made compulsory for all firms providing crypto asset services in the UK.