British Fintech firm to start physical crypto bank branches in India

[avikz]

The news is a bit of a surprise to me but if it happens, it wil be great!

Cashaa, a British Fintech company has announced on 26 October  that they are going to start 34 physical bank branches by partnering with "United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society" to build a crypto friendly banking service called UNICAS. Indians can safely operate a savings account to buy, sell and store crypto assets there!

While the parliamentary members are planning to ban cryptocurrencies in India, this news is indeed a surprise to me! Do you think it will become a reality?

News ref: https://cointelegraph.com/news/british-fintech-firm-opening-physical-crypto-bank-branches-in-india

[Ayiranorea]

The news is a bit of a surprise to me but if it happens, it wil be great!

Cashaa, a British Fintech company has announced on 26 October  that they are going to start 34 physical bank branches by partnering with "United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society" to build a crypto friendly banking service called UNICAS. Indians can safely operate a savings account to buy, sell and store crypto assets there!

While the parliamentary members are planning to ban cryptocurrencies in India, this news is indeed a surprise to me! Do you think it will become a reality?

News ref: https://cointelegraph.com/news/british-fintech-firm-opening-physical-crypto-bank-branches-in-india

There is more chance of this news come to reality. British fintech company focusing on the Indian market is something different, but it has a hidden plan. India being highly populated, it is easy to reach and make it successful. Maybe this could function as a financial service with the bitcoin holding saved in the form of fiat. For example if a person holds one bitcoin, he might be owning certain amount and based on the fluctuation of the market will be the fiat owned in his account. This way there is chance of running a bank in my view.

[stompix]

Cashaa, a British Fintech company has announced on 26 October  that they are going to start 34 physical bank branches by partnering with "United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society" to build a crypto friendly banking service called UNICAS. Indians can safely operate a savings account to buy, sell and store crypto assets there!

Yup, very safely! These are the guys that were storing their coins in blockchain's web wallet.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5261610.0
I'm pretty sure everyone will be thrilled to store their coins "safely" with them, not even mentioning that their token has dropped 86% from the ICO price.

That being said, your you store your coins with these guys?

[avikz]

Cashaa, a British Fintech company has announced on 26 October  that they are going to start 34 physical bank branches by partnering with "United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society" to build a crypto friendly banking service called UNICAS. Indians can safely operate a savings account to buy, sell and store crypto assets there!

Yup, very safely! These are the guys that were storing their coins in blockchain's web wallet.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5261610.0
I'm pretty sure everyone will be thrilled to store their coins "safely" with them, not even mentioning that their token has dropped 86% from the ICO price.

That being said, your you store your coins with these guys?

Lol! I got the sarcasm! Personally I don't prefer web wallets to store my bitcoins but I am thinking from a different perspective! India is a country if 1.3 billion population so it is obviously a very lucrative market for all kind of businesses. Also despite the odds, if they can successfully execute the plan, it will be a big milestone for the crypto communities in India because it has a Bank involved in it!

Normal middle class citizens don't want to invest into something unless it is offered by a Bank. That's the normal mindset of average Indians! I hope this partnership will bring some good news in terms of acceptability and mass penetration!

[davis196]

The news is a bit of a surprise to me but if it happens, it wil be great!

Cashaa, a British Fintech company has announced on 26 October  that they are going to start 34 physical bank branches by partnering with "United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society" to build a crypto friendly banking service called UNICAS. Indians can safely operate a savings account to buy, sell and store crypto assets there!

While the parliamentary members are planning to ban cryptocurrencies in India, this news is indeed a surprise to me! Do you think it will become a reality?

News ref: https://cointelegraph.com/news/british-fintech-firm-opening-physical-crypto-bank-branches-in-india

Opening physical bank branches in times of a global coronavirus pandemic and possible new lockdowns?
Nowadays banks should be going into complete online mode and closing branches,in order to avoid physical contact with their customers and help to reduce the coronavirus.
This seems like a bad idea.I don't know how the Indian government will react to such idea and will the Indian parliament ban cryptocurrencies again.
Anyways,I'm always skeptical,when I see the term "bitcoin bank" in any cryptocurrency project description.

[dothebeats]

Isn’t India still somewhat hostile to cryptocurrency-relates entities, organizations and companies or has that changed within the last few weeks? Also, isn’t this the same dudes who thought that storing their coins on a third—party web wallet is a good idea? Idk, but this spells some disaster rather than a relief for the crypto space. Besides, what does a crypto bank do anyway? If people are already comfortable and familiar with buying and selling their coins on an exchange, and storing coins on themselves, what edge does a crypto bank really offer?

[webtricks]

~snip~

Lol! I got the sarcasm! Personally I don't prefer web wallets to store my bitcoins but I am thinking from a different perspective! India is a country if 1.3 billion population so it is obviously a very lucrative market for all kind of businesses. Also despite the odds, if they can successfully execute the plan, it will be a big milestone for the crypto communities in India because it has a Bank involved in it!

Normal middle class citizens don't want to invest into something unless it is offered by a Bank. That's the normal mindset of average Indians! I hope this partnership will bring some good news in terms of acceptability and mass penetration!

But same normal middle class citizens aren't comfortable in opening bank accounts with the new private sector banks. They are still very conventional about choosing banks and happy to take 3-3.5% from public sector banks than opening accounts in private sector banks like Kotak Mahindra even if such banks offer interest rates of as high as 7% on savings! Now you tell me how many people from this 'normal middle class citizens' targeted audience would be actual comfortable in keeping their money with a company having weird track-record which is going to open branches in association with a co-operative society. I have been doing bank audits of co-operative society banks from last couple of years and can tell you such societies are awful in money management and more than 70% of their long-term lending is usually non-performing assets (NPAs). I have audited 48 co-operative branches last year, out of which I submitted critical negative report for 33, general qualifications for 8 and only 7 were healthy. Let alone normal middle class, even I will think twice in using banking services offered by a co-operative bank since now I know how it is managed by unqualified personnel.

Moreover, they are opening only 34 branches and we are talking about a country with over 600 cities. I doubt that would make much of the difference if they can't reach to the public from second and third tier cities.

Besides, what does a crypto bank do anyway? If people are already comfortable and familiar with buying and selling their coins on an exchange, and storing coins on themselves, what edge does a crypto bank really offer?

Indian commercial banks are generally considered as non-crypto friendly. There are several instances of account ban and account freeze of the crypto traders by Indian banks even after Supreme Court of India explicitly stating banks to offer services to crypto traders/users. So an exchange having its own crypto bank would be good solution for high-volume crypto traders provided such traders are ready to take risk of keeping their money with such bank. Other than that I don't think normal masses would react positively to the concept of 'crypto bank'.

[Lordhermes]

On a side note, do they allow their customer withdraw cryptocurrrency to their own cryptocurrrency wallet?

This is the part that would definitely disrupt the plan of establishing the banking service, on a norm, the system had been stated as "be your own bank" but if the plan is executed, it will go the opposite a little bit.
Secondly, I think its not going to be possible because, issues of Indian government against the cryptocurrency projects and requesting to ban any crypto related structure in the country. I don't know how this establishment would coincide with the Indian constitutional policy against crypto, let's watch out how it will go in the future.

[aysg76]

The news is a bit of a surprise to me but if it happens, it wil be great!

Cashaa, a British Fintech company has announced on 26 October  that they are going to start 34 physical bank branches by partnering with "United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society" to build a crypto friendly banking service called UNICAS. Indians can safely operate a savings account to buy, sell and store crypto assets there!

While the parliamentary members are planning to ban cryptocurrencies in India, this news is indeed a surprise to me! Do you think it will become a reality?

News ref: https://cointelegraph.com/news/british-fintech-firm-opening-physical-crypto-bank-branches-in-india

This news has come in the time of festivals in India and it is great surprise for all the crypto enthusiast residing there. Inspite of indian government attitude towards cryptocurrency market it is shocking that Fintech is partening with United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society to open crypto friendly bank In india named as Unicas.This venture will have 32 branches across India spreading over metro cities and they plan to expand its business.Cassha india CEO stated that many indians are not aware about mainstream of cryptocurrency and they are not adopting it.These banks will help them to buy crypto like Bitcoin,ETH and their native tokens CAS so we can accept this a major role playing of changing attitudes of indian people towards crypto world and become active part of it.

[stompix]

Lol! I got the sarcasm! Personally I don't prefer web wallets to store my bitcoins but I am thinking from a different perspective! India is a country if 1.3 billion population so it is obviously a very lucrative market for all kind of businesses.

Hmmm, this business, as in losing clients' money? Lol, ok enough with the sarcasm  
The point is not what India might be for a company but the company that has chosen to do this step.

Cashaa is not even close to being a bank in the UK:

3.1. Cashaa is not a regulated financial institution all our services are provided through other regulated financial institutions.

Their card is issued by Enumis, their fiat deals are done by a regulated bank, and yet, while not being able to even get registered here they will start creating a bank with 30 branches in India and from the start declaring war on the government's attitude towards crypto. Yeah, right! BS! If I would have heard that from a serious company, yes, but from one that has made only empty promises for two years showing nothing but burning through investment money it just triggers a yawn! Seriously, nobody has achieved this, and looks who's going to be the pioneer!

Start with a few ATMs and let's see if they last more than a month, don't throw plans like opening a hundred branches by x-mas!

Now you tell me how many people from this 'normal middle class citizens' targeted audience would be actual comfortable in keeping their money with a company having weird track-record which is going to open branches in association with a co-operative society.

Hmm, if the plan would be indeed completed I would not be so pessimistic about the numbers, 1..3 billion, enough to get the scam bank going.

[webtricks]

~snip
Start with a few ATMs and let's see if they last more than a month, don't throw plans like opening a hundred branches by x-mas!

It is not possible for any entity except a bank or a registered NBFC to establish ATMs in India. In case of non-banking financial institution (NBFC), the entity has to take pre-approval from Reserve Bank of India and if request is approved, it can open white-label ATM which comes with certain restrictions.

However, Cashaa doesn't fall in the definition of NBFC so the company most probably have to rely on UNICA for the banking and ATM needs. UNICA being co-operative society cannot allow buying/selling of bitcoin on its current ATMs both due to financial and technical limitations. So bitcoin ATMs are out-of-picture.

I also noticed one thing, UNICA already have 43 branches in India. So, most probably Cashaa just gonna add its support on 34 of these branches. So it may sound like a big PR that they gonna set-up 34 physical branches but originally they are just paying UNICA to add their name in already running branches. Weird way to start a service but let's see. It's actually easy to fool Indians, if people can fall for ponzis and MLMs, 'crypto bank' is still very fancy term to lure them in.

Note: UNICA = United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society

[Dorodha]

Many countries have become legal to support a British fintech firm to start a physical crypto bank branch in India corona Kalin thinking of the success of the Fintech companies to make a loss and keeping an eye on them led the bank to transform Fintech, but he kept the mainstream in front of them and made them efficient. The two largest countries in Asia China and India have had significant success in using fintech. Ordinary people in China in particular are using mobile phones for all their daily transactions and financial services.

[Emitdama]

I was going to say that it was of no use, but then I changed my mind; a bank that trades cryptocurrency and has physical locations, not just one but up to thirty-four? That would make many people to trust them.

Although there wouldn’t be any difference in the services they are going to be giving to their customers; it would be just like having a blockchain.com wallet which let’s users store both fiat and cryptocurrency and convert and trade at anytime they want, except that blockchain.com doesn’t have much Physical locations, just a few. Maybe it will help Indians to be able to adopt cryptocurrency the more, and if the bank should eventually should become one of the biggest banks there, it can make a change.

[Wind_FURY]

Cashaa, a British Fintech company has announced on 26 October  that they are going to start 34 physical bank branches by partnering with "United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society" to build a crypto friendly banking service called UNICAS. Indians can safely operate a savings account to buy, sell and store crypto assets there!

Yup, very safely! These are the guys that were storing their coins in blockchain's web wallet.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5261610.0
I'm pretty sure everyone will be thrilled to store their coins "safely" with them, not even mentioning that their token has dropped 86% from the ICO price.

That being said, your you store your coins with these guys?

Hahaha.

Plus can I withdraw my Bitcoins from these "physical banks", which really are custodians, to HODL in my own wallet to preserve self-sovereignty, and censorship-resistance? Or am I actually holding a Bitcoin-IOU?

[TheUltraElite]

The recent news of Cashaa hack and their "owner" Kumar Gaurav scamming the project seems to have put off some investors and now in order to bring people back into their scene they are making such articles. Nothing is finalized about opening these institutions but only said that they would - where else have we heard the same thing previously and then nothing happened?

There is a lot of hurdles that need to be crossed first before they can actually integrate a banking system with a cryptocurrency. Hoping for the best though in case Cashaa makes it through before facing crackdown from RBI or some other regulating body.

[ropyu1978]

The British fintech company started a Cryto branch in India, I think it is very good, because of the rapid development of fintech in India, knowledge of the digital payment platform in Indian cities has grown rapidly, the effect on the digital is more visible in urban India ,, but unfortunately in rural areas there is still no visible development ,, I hope in the future rural areas and can feel developments such as in cities,
And I hope India can kindly accept crypto ..

[Streets 2.0]

I heard about serious resistance to the development of blockchain technologies from the government, which, as I was told, wants to ban the mining of cryptocurrency, which in fact is the first serious step to ban it in the whole country. What effect this will have on the entire industry in the country in the future is not very clear. But the fact that a British company comes to the country precisely against the background of such news is alarming. This is an interesting story, let's see how the case ends.

[KryptoKings]

I heard about serious resistance to the development of blockchain technologies from the government, which, as I was told, wants to ban the mining of cryptocurrency, which in fact is the first serious step to ban it in the whole country. What effect this will have on the entire industry in the country in the future is not very clear. But the fact that a British company comes to the country precisely against the background of such news is alarming. This is an interesting story, let's see how the case ends.

The government and federal bank of India is not friendly towards private crypto but they are not averse to blockchain technology.
Their are many start ups in blockchain field in India and all of them have bright future.
It is crypto that may be ban from holding, trading and mining in India.
Lets hope they reconsider their ban decision too.

[kryptqnick]

I'm not sure that this firm will receive green light from Indian authorities because they haven't finalized their crypto regulations yet, and it seems that the banking sector is especially hostile to cryptos in India. If this works out, it will probably mean full KYC, the firm monitoring where BTC goes and where it comes from, and obviously it will be in control of the coins of their customers. So not much is left from Bitcoin when it's stored and used like this, but I still think that there will be people interested in this, especially among those who're currently reluctant to use Bitcoin and prefer to store their money in a bank account.

[caffinated]

no good crypto business will consider expanding to india, its just too hostile to crypto with the RBI consistently attempting to get rid of it. They have taken great strides to prevent the public from getting hold of crypto and rightfully so. India is a country where bitcoin unfortunately does not belong. I'd say the company has an ulterior motive, it does not make any good business sense or its probably at such a low scale that it would not hurt the company just for the extra "excitement" with the share holders.
I was threatened by the police to be arrested when i shipped a atm there, very risky stuff lol