The launch of the new Ziglu bank is scheduled to start in the next few months.
https://www.ziglu.io/Ir is being started by an ex Barclays exec, and a long term banker. It is only in the UK, but it will allow customers to hold multi-currency accounts, including a variety of fiat, and also Bitcoin. Funds can be transferred between accounts at minimal cost ( so they say ).
I do not see this particular project being a game-changer. Right now what concerns me the most apart from the structure of the business are these things:
First, they are registered as LIVECON SERVICES LIMITED which is registered at 1 Poultry London, Poultry, London, England, EC2R 8EJ (and they are using the trading name "ziglu"). The company is registered/incorporated at a serviced office or mailing address where these people are not based. They do not have an office with lots of desks and lots of staff etc based at the address they registered their company. Here is a list showing 112
companies registered there but they are probably all mailing address companies:
https://suite.endole.co.uk/explorer/postcode/ec2r-8ejSecond, they stated in their terms and conditions (
https://www.ziglu.io/website-terms) the following "
We have applied to be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in England" so in simple-speak it means they do not have permission to do anything with regards to financial transactions until/unless they get an authorisation number after being vetted. It probably would have been far more constructive for them to actually get authorised by the FCA first and then see what happens later because even though they will probably be accepted there is no guarantee.
Pah. Just another Revolut then.
I wonder whether places like this ever looked into proper cryptoness and abandoned the idea or never entertained it at all.
Most 'challenger banks' are just white labels contracting real banks to do the work so they'll always be desperate to please them.
Yes looks like a Revolut clone-ish type of project. Nothing revolutionary bringing or taking banking and crypto to a new level.
What's the point? The only possible use of this is the debit card that will allow people to pay with BTC without really paying with BTC, which means it's going to be used by people who somehow obtained Bitcoin but don't really know how to use it, don't care about its principles, or find it difficult to sell on exchanges. Now, let's think about how many people in this space are randoms (not enthusiasts) that would use this bank. 10%? Probably even less than that. How many of this 10% will choose this bank? Probably not many.
And for the reasons you listed above I cannot see this project being successful at all.
At first, I thought it was something interesting, a sign that banks are trying to adapt to reality. But this thing about having to exchange cryptos for fiat to transfer money anywhere is very upsetting. It's like a centralized regulated limited exchange rather than a bank to me... I don't think this will be attractive to people. Perhaps only to hodlers who for some reason prefer to keep their coins in someone else's hands, probably pay extra fees for that and definitely be asked questions about those coins as well as being fully identified as a holder of those coins.
Yes it seems to be a crypto bank in name only because when transactions take place they are indeed similar to a centralised/regulated exchange more than anything else.
