MVB Partners with Bitcoin Firm for Banking Service

New York-based MVB Bank has partnered with NYDIG, a technology and financial services company dedicated to bitcoin.

The partnership will integrate the cryptocurrency into MVB Bank’s banking-as-a-service (BaaS) solutions, which allow external companies to offer white-labelled banking products.

Through the arrangement, MVB’s fintech clients will be offered bitcoin-related products powered by NYDIG’s technology platform.

Currently MVB Bank works with over 50 fintech, payments, and gaming clients, providing its banking and payment solutions.

Patrick Sells, NYDIG chief innovation officer, said the partnership marked an “important milestone” for the bitcoin market.

“Up to this point, only a select few fintech companies have been able to offer bitcoin products and services, and it has been difficult to achieve,” he said. “Now the industry has its first turnkey platform to seamlessly deliver white-label banking and bitcoin products side by side.”

Larry Mazza, CEO and president of MVB Bank’s parent company MVB Financial, said that “adding bitcoin functionality to MVB’s already industry-leading BaaS solutions will… help our clients compete”.

In the past year, regulators including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) have taken steps to boost banks’ ability to work with cryptocurrencies.

In June, the OCC cleared banks and savings associations to accept crypto payments, following a January letter stating that banks were permitted to use “independent node verification networks” such as blockchain and “stable coins” to conduct payment activities and other functions.

Following this, the FDIC launched an information-gathering exercise to explore emerging digital assets in the banking sector.

The regulator officially recognized that there were “novel and unique considerations” around digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. FDIC chair Jelena McWilliams said the corporation was “laying the foundation” for the next chapter of banking.