Customers Bancorp has joined the crypto bandwagon and brought onboard a seven-man team that supports the need for commercial cryptocurrency and digital asset institutions. It’s one of the few conventional banks to do so.
The new team includes professionals across Bank Secrecy Act and compliance, payments, onboarding, technology, and business development.
And most members of the team hail from Silvergate Capital, which is the first financial institution to service the cryptocurrency ecosystem in California.
Sam Sidhu, Customers Bank (a subsidiary of Customers Bancorp) chief executive, stated recently that the bank is committed to becoming…“one of the top financial institutions serving commercial cryptocurrency and digital asset institutions, and we understand all requirements, pitfalls, and the possibilities for crypto customers.”
Sidhu further said that the institution “has the technology and agility to scale [the customer’s] needs with their requirements throughout the entire [crypto] ecosystem, not just in one or two aspects of their business.”
Customers Bancorp creates digital fiat and token
Customers Bank has created TassatPay (a digital fiat payment system) and CBIT token (Customers Bank Instant Token). Both products are similar to those of JPMorgan Chase.
In an announcement issued by the bank, it made nearly $1.5 billion worth of non-interest deposit growth from the crypto business in its Q3 last year earnings report.
The West Reading-based Customers Bank entered the crypto space after Sidhu and Christopher Smalley (the head of digital banking at Customers Bank) reached out to Robb Layfield (Silvergate’s Business Development Executive)—who will now officially serve as the bank’s managing director of the Digital Assets Group.
Layfield admits to researching more about Customers Bancorp before embarking on the move from an established bank in the cryptocurrency space.
Customers Bank introduces new lending verticals
Customers Bank shut down its retail branches in the past to forge a different tact for expansion. In the process, it came up with a commercial and private banking office in Manhattan nine years ago.
Last year, the bank has opened financial centers across Dallas, Orlando (including lenders in Tampa and Jacksonville), Wilmington, North Carolina, and Harrisburg.
Customers Bancorp also introduced new lending verticals such as a financial institutions group, real estate specialty finance, fund financing, and a digital asset group geared toward cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The bank announced last year that it plans to embrace a modern and technology-centric approach by rebranding the institution.
During the COVID pandemic, Customers Bank managed to leverage tech partnerships, becoming one of the largest Paycheck Protection Program lenders.
