Swiss investment bank UBS AG introduced its hybrid digital bond on Nov. 3, claiming to be the world's first publicly traded and settled on both blockchain-based and traditional exchanges. According to the bank, the digital bond has the same instrument structure, legal status and rating as a traditional UBS AG senior unsecured note. In its statement, the bank said: "Through this bond, UBS enables investors, regardless of whether they have the blockchain infrastructure, to invest in a digital bond. This removes a hurdle on the way to adopt new disruptive technology that can make issuing bonds faster, more efficient and …

Ralph Hamers, CEO of Swiss bank UBS, has said he does not fear missing out on crypto. Speaking to Bloomberg on Tuesday, Hamers said, “Clients are looking at different alternatives, and they hear about crypto, and there is a bit of a fear of missing out as well. They read it in the papers, but they also see the volatility.” Commenting on the bank’s approach to providing exposure to crypto for its wealth management clients, the UBS CEO stated: “We don’t offer it actively […] We feel that crypto itself is still an untested asset category.” Back in May, reports …

Swiss multinational investment banking giant UBS has warned its clients that crypto assets are unsuitable for professional investors if regulatory pressure continues. In a note sent to clients last week, the global wealth management team at UBS said China’s latest crackdown had hurt crypto prices and operators, cautioning that further regulatory pushback worldwide could exacerbate the downward pressure on digital asset prices: “Regulators have demonstrated they can and will crackdown on crypto, so we suggest investors stay clear and build their portfolio around less risky assets. We’ve long warned that shifting investor sentiment or regulatory crackdowns could pop bubble-like crypto …

Major international banks like Credit Suisse and HSBC are reportedly scrutinizing their Hong Kong clients amid the ongoing protests over China-backed national security law. According to a July 19 report by Reuters, global banks including Credit Suisse, HSBC, Julius Baer, and UBS are now screening their clients in Hong Kong on potential ties to the city’s pro-democracy movement. Social media spies Citing a group of anonymous people familiar with the matter, the report says that the banks are scanning clients’ records for political and government ties in order to impose additional diligence requirements. The records include comments made by clients …

Commerzbank, Credit Suisse and UBS carried out the first transactions on Deutsche Boerse and HQLAX’s distributed ledger technology-enabled (DLT) security lending platform. According to a Deutsche Boerse press release on Dec. 3, the company jointly developed the platform with fintech firm HQLAX, which was launched by R3 and uses Corda DLT technology to provide liquidity and collateral management products. The platform was able to swap ownership of a basket of German government bonds and a basket of corporate bonds between UBS and Commerzbank while employing Clearstream Banking as a custodian. It also conducted a cross-custodian swap between UBS and Credit …

A former executive of investment bank UBS has established a United States-based digital securities platform. According to a press release on Nov. 27, Claude Waelchli — who served over 12 years at UBS in various executive positions — launched the Tokenyz platform for issuing digital securities. Waelchli states that the financial industry can benefit from digital securities as they can automate manual processes, streamline settlements, create liquidity, and lower minimum trade size. Eventually, Waelchli intends to connect “tech companies with immense tokenization capability but little financial acumen, and financial services companies locked into their traditional business models.” Waelchli said, “It …

Sources ostensibly familiar with the matter have claimed that some of the world’s leading banks are currently investing around $50 million to build a blockchain-powered digital cash system for transaction settlement. The news was reported by Reuters on May 17. An earlier project for a blockchain-based currency settlement coin was unveiled by Swiss bank UBS Group AG and London-based technology startup Clearmatics at early as 2015, as Cointelegraph reported at the time. One of Reuters’ sources has said that the latest development involves around a dozen major banks investing in a new entity dubbed Finality, which could launch as early …

Swiss bank UBS’ Wealth Management Global Chief Economist and infamous Bitcoin skeptic Paul Donovan doubled down on his distrust of cryptocurrency Nov. 29, calling it “fundamentally flawed.” Speaking to CNBC’s Fast Money segment, Donovan, who earlier this week released an internal blog post titled “I come to bury Bitcoin, not to praise it,” repeated his criticism of the innovative financial instrument. “I think anyone with a high school education in economics has been a Bitcoin skeptic right from the start,” he told the network, adding: “These things were never going to be currencies, they’re not going to be currencies at …

Swiss-based investment bank and financial services company the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) said that Bitcoin’s (BTC) scalability and volatility are still too high for the cryptocurrency to be used as “money,” CNBC reported August 2. In a note to clients, UBS strategist Joni Teves claimed that until regulatory support is in place and technical hurdles are overcome, Bitcoin could not become a “legitimate asset class,” underlining, “Bitcoin is still too unstable and limited to become a viable means of payment or a mainstream asset class. Owing to its lack of price stability, bitcoin falls short of criteria that need …

This interview has been edited and condensed. Cointelegraph had the opportunity to speak to ConsenSys’ Ajit Tripathi at BlockShow Europe 2018 about his experience leaving Wall Street for the crypto world, what new ConsenSys projects he’s most excited about, and why crypto regulation changes from country to country. Molly Jane: Could you tell us a little bit more about what ConsenSys does and what your role is there? Ajit Tripathi: ConsenSys is a venture production studio based in Brooklyn, and now we have offices in London, in about 30 countries, including London, Paris, South Africa, Australia, and Singapore — we're …

The CEO of Swiss financial services provider UBS Group Sergio Ermotti said that blockchain will be essential for the financial services industry in an interview with CNBC June 18. Ermotti said that the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies will allow “[the] freeing up of resources to become more efficient,” adding that “[it] is a great way to allow us to… reduce costs.” He stated that blockchain will prove to be transformative to the industry’s cost base in five to ten years’ time, adding that prioritizing the application of blockchain technology will ensure that UBS remains competitive: "Our industry will continue to …

Sergio Ermotti, the CEO of Swiss banking giant UBS, told CNBC that he believes Blockchain technology will “likely reshape” the way that banks do business. UBS is already heavily invested in the new technology, partnering in the Batavia project with IBM, Bank of Montreal, and others. The statement does not come as a surprise, as companies and institutions have been rushing into the Blockchain space in order to increase efficiency and decrease costs. According to Ermotti: "Our strategy there is very simple. We try to initiate and get as many other financial institutions and clients into teams like trade finance …