U.K.: Ziglu Cryptocurrency Bank Eyes 2020 Debut

Mark Hipperson, the former head of Barclays, recently shared his plans of launching a new digital banking venture dubbed Ziglu in the U.K. in 2020. This, according to a report by San Francisco Tribe, January 6, 2020.

Ziglu to Bolster the U.K. Financial System

The U.K. has recently found itself engulfed in the cobweb of socio-political instability due to Brexit. High on uncertainty, Brexit has without a doubt left a huge dent on the goodwill of the U.K. as a reliable and stable country to expand or start businesses. In fact, for businesses pertinent to emerging technologies like blockchain, the country has become even less financially attractive.

In a bid to circumvent such challenges in the U.K., Hipperson has announced the launch of the country’s first regulated cryptocurrency bank called Ziglu. The former co-founder of the U.K. challenger bank, Starling, said:

“While we intend to expand our offerings to other countries in due course, currently only UK-residents who are at least 18 years of age may use our services and are eligible to apply for a Ziglu account.”

Per sources in the know, Ziglu will allow U.K. citizens and businesses to store fiat currency and digital tokens all in the same bank account. Further, the digital bank will allow enable them to seamlessly convert their fiat into crypto and vice versa.

While at the surface the offering sounds fairly simple, it actually involves quite a lot of mathematics and calculations to enable customers to make payments in different currencies on the go. The endgame is to give the customers the ability to exchange one currency for another at any time with inter-bank rates.

For the time being, Ziglu will only provide services within the U.K. which means that interested people from the rest of the world might have to wait a little longer to enjoy seamless digital banking services.

The U.K. Set to Tap the Benefits of Digital Currencies

Afraid of being left behind by its more enthusiastic and proactive European counterparts, the U.K. is leaving nothing to luck to develop a conducive regulatory ecosystem that encourages crypto and blockchain start-ups to conduct their businesses in the country.

As reported by BTCManager on August 9, 2019, the U.K.’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had authorized U.S.-based Robinhood crypto trading app to expand its business in the nation.