As reported in CoinDesk, Coinbase have severed ties with Barclays and will be using new British challenger bank ClearBank for FPS.
The development follows the recent ‘temporary’ withdrawal of Faster Payments for UK users of the Coinbase, meaning slower GBP/Sterling transfers into the service, and an increased dependence on PayPal for withdrawals.
Access to FPS is expected to be restored in the third quarter 2019.
British banks have long had an aversion to anything crypto related. Crypto was seen as just too risky for UK banks. Any type of crypto related business in the UK has found it almost 100% impossible to get a business bank account at any of the main British banks.
Barclays made what was at the time an unusual move among the big banks in teaming up with Coinbase. Unfortunately this relationship came to an end.
Coinbase is a US based platform allowing users to deposit fiat currency, which can be used to buy and sell crypto assets such as bitcoin, Ethereum and litecoin
Over the last year the service has added on numerous additional crypto assets, increasing the offering significantly to include over a dozen other assets such as XRP, Stellar and EOS.
ClearBank is UK based challenger bank that aims to be a next generation infrastructure provider for financial transactions.
ClearBank® delivers new standards in market competition and service transparency. Our state-of-the-art technologies and innovative services transform clearing and agency services for regulated organisations. We make payments faster, automate business processes and reconciliation, whilst delivering new levels of cost efficiency, instantly.
