ClearBank, an enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, has forged a new regional partnership with Kraken, the cryptocurrency trading platform, to offer its UK-based clients GBP clearing services, enabling on and off-ramps into the digital exchange ecosystem.
Through the new partnership, Kraken and ClearBank plan to launch regional clearing services in early 2025. The two entities are also exploring additional opportunities to scale the partnership, enabling Kraken to offer new and exciting products and services to its clients.
Following on from Kraken’s legal entity, Payward Services, securing a UK Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence, ClearBank is now becoming the digital assets platform’s primary UK bank and will support it as it scales up its UK licence.
“The partnership with Kraken is a demonstration of our ability to provide account and payments services across both the UK and Europe,” said John Salter, chief customer officer at ClearBank. “We now work with some of the largest companies and exchanges in the market, and with Kraken, we are pleased to further grow our presence further in the rapidly expanding world of digital assets. Both ClearBank and Kraken are culturally aligned and have similar ambitious long-term growth plans, and we look forward to working with them to provide a range of new products and services to further delight their customers.”
ClearBank already supports Crypto Facilities, an FCA-regulated investment firm also part of the Kraken Group, with client money accounts.
Driving mainstream crypto adoption
Building and maintaining reliable, instant fiat payments rails has proven a consistent challenge holding back digital asset adoption. ClearBank hopes to solve this challenge through its direct membership of the Faster Payments Service (FPS) and its virtual International Bank Account Numbers (vIBANs) offering.
Kaushik Sthankiya, global head, banking and payments, Kraken, also commented: “To unleash the potential of cryptocurrency and drive mainstream adoption, the underlying banking infrastructure must be robust. This is why we have partnered with ClearBank, whose battle-tested, cloud-based API technology and commitment to innovation matches Kraken’s vision of growing crypto adoption and financial freedom. Together, we will deliver a seamless, scalable, and secure platform for all our clients to not only access and transact but also thrive within the crypto economy.”
Later this year, the partnership will expand further with Kraken’s European EMI entity Payward Ireland Limited set to onboard to ClearBank making it Kraken’s primary clearing bank in the EU region, granting clients access to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and opening up GBP and EUR clearing services to both UK and EU-based clients.
