The London-based online banking platform Cashaa is planning to launch a crypto-friendly neobank — or internet bank — in India. 

Kuman
Gaurav, the founder of Cashaa, told Cointelegraph that Cashaa India
will allow Indian businesses and individuals to open a savings account
with them and buy, store and save cryptocurrencies just like any other
financial instrument.

“For lending, we will be adding crypto assets class together with gold and real estate as collateral,” he said.

Gaurav
explained the need for a crypto-friendly bank in India, saying that
most Indian banks are reluctant to provide banking services to the
crypto users. Cashaa India, he added, would be the first registered bank
to allow deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrencies just like it is
today for the Indian rupee.

Cashaa has provided B2B banking
services to most of the major Indian cryptocurrency companies. The
launch of the neo bank will allow the platform to extend its crypto and
banking services to individuals as well.

Cashaa recently received
clearance from regulators to operate as a crypto-friendly internet
banking platform across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United
States. The company aims to start operating the banking platform with
support for the euro, British pound and U.S. dollar by December this
year.

Gaurav said that Cashaa would initially start providing its
banking services to Indian cooperatives and will launch its full-fledged
services in the next year. The company’s focus is on “three key states”
in India, from where it plans to expand throughout the country.

Reflecting
on the regulations in India, Gaurav said that the fintech regulations
in the country are still evolving. He said that that is why financial scams using one-time passwords and phishing techniques are so difficult to restrict. 

He
further added that the Indian government and financial institutions are
well aware of the potential of cryptocurrencies, and there has been no
indication from the government about a potential ban on cryptos. The reports of the impending ban on crypto
in India by media outlets have only been speculative stories, he
emphasized, adding that regulations will most likely not be a hurdle for
Cashaa India to offer crypto services to its users.

source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/british-fintech-to-expand-banking-services-to-indian-crypto-customers