FMA-regulated, Liechtenstein-based private bank with 46.4 billion CHF in assets under management, leverages Metaco technology to expand its tokenization services
Lausanne, Switzerland – 4 April 2023 — Metaco, the leading provider of digital asset technology infrastructure to regulated financial institutions, has partnered with VP Bank (SWX: VPBN), one of the largest private banks in Liechtenstein. The collaboration leverages Metaco’s flagship platform, Harmonize™, to allow VP Bank the optionality to expand its digital asset custody and tokenization services beyond art and physical collector items, such as being able to support tokenized financial assets or minting, burning and storage of tokens.
With six locations across important financial centers in Europe, Asia and BVI, and over 46 billion CHF in assets under management at the end of 2022, VP Bank is a globally recognized leader in bespoke and innovative investment and asset management solutions for private clients and HNWIs. Pioneered since 2021, VP Bank’s digital asset strategy initially envisioned the tokenization and custody of collectible physical assets such as jewels, paintings, watches and sculptures — creating a future-oriented offering combined with the customary security standards of a regulated bank. To continue executing on its strong client demand momentum, VP Bank required scalable and secure digital asset IT infrastructure that allows it to exploit new business opportunities when issuing, holding and managing digital assets on behalf of its clients.
Following a diligent selection process, VP Bank has selected Metaco as its preferred digital asset custody and orchestration technology partner, uniquely meeting the bank’s stringent requirements for institutional-grade key management and smart contract governance capabilities, as it seeks to expand its tokenization of digital and real-world assets in a highly scalable and secure manner, while remaining fully compliant with the regulations of the Token and Trusted Technology Service Provider Act (TVTG). The unique orchestration capabilities and policy framework governing all digital asset interactions with liquidity venues, decentralized finance applications and other third-party systems were among other critical criteria in the selection process.
After a successful five-month modernization project, VP Bank now consumes Metaco Harmonize™ as a managed service, fully integrated into the banks’ core banking system. By consolidating its digital asset technology landscape to a single, mission-critical custody and tokenization platform to secure and govern its operations end-to-end, VP Bank is able to take its commercial offerings to the next level and scale to millions of custody accounts, protected by the ultimate combination of multi-party computation and hardware encryption technologies, without the overhead requirements of internally managing any physical infrastructure.
Marcel Fleisch, Chief Product Officer at VP Bank commented, commented:
“At VP Bank, we are committed to rethink wealth management by combining traditional banking with digital ecosystems to create whole new services and opportunities for our clients. By partnering with Metaco to offer a secure and scalable platform to tokenize and custody all types of financial, digital and real-world assets, we take a new major step towards building VP Bank’s foundation of the future.”
Seamus Donoghue, Chief Growth Officer at Metaco, also added:
“We are proud that VP Bank, one of the largest banks in Liechtenstein and a future oriented bank for private clients and intermediaries, is now relying on Metaco Harmonize to scale its digital asset custody and tokenization services. The bank-grade orchestration capabilities of the Harmonize platform enables the secure management of a range of digital asset use cases, allowing banks and financial institutions to satisfy demand for new asset classes and expand their business model in any direction.”
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About Metaco
Founded in 2015 in Switzerland, Metaco is an enterprise technology company whose mission is to enable financial and non-financial institutions to securely build their digital asset operations. The company’s core product, Harmonize™, is a mission-critical orchestration platform for digital assets. From asset-agnostic custody and trading to tokenization, staking and smart contract management, the platform seamlessly connects institutions to the broad universe of decentralized finance (DeFi) and decentralized applications (Web3 Dapps). Metaco has established itself as the institutional standard for digital asset infrastructure, trusted by the world’s largest global custodians, banks, regulated exchanges, and corporates. Its software and technology solutions enable institutions to store, trade, issue and manage any type of digital asset — such as crypto and digital currencies, digital securities, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – with the highest possible security and agility.
About VP Bank
VP Bank Ltd was established in 1956 and, with around 1,000 employees, is one of the largest banks in Liechtenstein. VP Bank has an international presence, with locations in Vaduz, Zurich, Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong and Road Town (British Virgin Islands). Its core competencies include the development of customised financial solutions for intermediaries and private persons. In addition, the Group has an international fund competence centre. As of 31 December 2022, client assets under management of VP Bank Group amounted to 46.4 billion CHF. VP Bank is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has an “A” rating from Standard & Poor’s.
