Sberbank and Alfa Bank, two of Russia’s biggest Banks have decided to offer crypto-related investment options to their clients. Russia’s central bank has set a regulatory framework which the two banks will need to follow for their cryptocurrency investment products.

Sber Bank is responsible for processing the paychecks of government employees and Alfa Bank which is the largest private bank in the country.These two institutions will enter the crypto market with the support from AddCapital Investment Fund and the National Settlement Depository and Group IB.

AddCapital investment fund will be providing technical solutions for the new investment prodgrams. Alexy Prokofiev, CEO of AddCapital Investment Fund said that “The investment process will see investors purchase a share of the fund as the shares are liquid and a client can send them for fiat currencies any time”.

Investment Portfolio

The Russian Banks have informed that an investment portfolio based on digital currencies will be formed. According to the portfolio overview, the banks will accept assets in the form of six cryptos, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

The investment portfolio will be reviewed once every quarter. In regards to the exchange algorithms, changes will be made in the weighted values of cryptocurrencies on the portfolio. The portfolio will give the client the freedom to exchange their traditional currencies with their crypto assets under the control of Group IB through custodian solutions.

Anna Ivanchuk, the deputy’s head of private banking at Sber Bank said “We are intending to offer our clients a very transparent entry point for crypto assets which will be fully compliant with all regulatory requirements which will indeed allow investments in Russia in products which interests them”.

Anton Rakhmanov, the Manager of Alfa Bank’s private banking branch said that “our goal is to speed up the regulations of the digital assets as legitimate financial assets as soon as possible”.

Many banks worldwide have warned their customers to stay away from the cryptocurrency investments and have shared guidelines warning about cryptocurrency. Some other banks have even frozen the cards of their customers trying to purchase digital currencies.

Despite the resistance shown by many financial institutions, these two Russian Banks have shown a strong interest to test crypto as an alternative means of investment.