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- Hex Trust enters partnership with multibillion-dollar European payments company SIA
- The partnership will enable a gateway to Europe for digital custody solutions
Hex Trust, a key provider of custody for digital assets in the banking sector, is partnering with the Milan-based payments company, SIA group. Hex hopes the partnership will provide an opportunity to help its existing European bank clients offer custody for digital assets. The custody infrastructure and technology of the Hex trust is supported and secured by IBM.
What does the Hex Trust deal mean?
With a wave of interest in cryptocurrency from established platforms in recent weeks, including Paypal’s support for crypto transactions, Daniele Savare (SIA’s director for innovation and business solutions) has stated the group is are already in discussions about digital custody needs with European banks. The intention at present is to provide the software to allow the banks themselves to offer custody for their customers’ digital assets. Alessio Quaglini, CEO for Hex Trust, has also said that, for banks that may not want to offer a custody service for digital assets direct to consumers, the trust can act like a sub-custodian.
Quaglini has already confirmed SIA will be Hex’s main European distributor from this point onwards. SIA has been successful elsewhere in opening doors to Europe. Many see the interbank payment systems SIA developed for Romania as central to its negotiating its membership of the EU. Strong links with central banks mean SIA is already well placed in conversations around the ‘digital Euro’ as well as helping banks manage security tokens.
It was only two weeks ago that it was announced that Italian company Nexi would acquire SIA in 2021 for a stock deal worth almost $5.4bn. The deal has resulted in a colossal $17.6bn payments company. It has been a busy month at SIA. Before the Hex collaboration, the payments company became a technical partner for the blockchain infrastructure Spunta Banca DLT, another Italian company.
