Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) has partnered with Hex Trust, a digital asset custodian in Asia, to pilot its digital asset custody service.

The collaboration will start with Hex Trust providing digital asset custody as an internal service for UnionBank employees, as a pilot run, to prepare for the next stage — a fully commercialized digital asset custody service for the bank’s customers. UnionBank is in full compliance with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in offering this service.

UnionBank sees the digital asset space maturing as more and more customers and institutional investors show interest in digital assets and the blockchain. This tie-up enables UnionBank to respond to the needs of customers who are now looking for a trusted and regulated institution to safekeep their digital assets. This also allows the industry to continue its growth, and at the same time, together with the BSP, remain safe and regulated for new and existing investors.

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“Digital assets are here to stay, whether it be in the form of cryptocurrency, NFTs or tokenized assets, and we are seeing more market demand for these,” said Henry Aguda, chief technology and operations officer and chief transformation officer, Union Bank of the Philippines. “We are excited to be the first Philippine bank to pilot a custody service for digital assets for our own employees, overseen by the BSP, so that we can prepare the groundwork for a safe and protected system for customers’ digital assets.”

Hex Trust

Hex Trust is a fully licensed, insured financial institution that provides bank-grade custody for digital assets. Led by veteran banking technologists and award-winning financial services experts, Hex Trust has built a proprietary bank-grade platform — Hex Safe — that delivers a custody solution for banks, financial institutions, asset managers, exchanges, and corporations.

Hex Trust has already established itself as the leading digital asset custodian in Asia and has a range of banks, financial institutions, and digital asset companies as clients.

“Hex Trust’s collaboration with UnionBank enables secure access to the digital asset ecosystem via our award-winning enterprise-level custody platform,” said Calvin Shen, head of Sales and Business Development at Hex Trust. “Millions of the bank’s customers will soon have access to this new asset class. We are proud to be a part of the bank’s commitment as the Philippines’ leading digital bank.”