RAK first 'traditional' UAE bank to offer crypto trading for retail clients

Dubai: One of the UAE's leading banking institutions, RAKBank has launched a crypto brokerage service via its mobile app for retail customers. It has become the 'first conventional bank in the UAE to enable crypto trading services for its customers'.

RAKBank customers can buy, sell, and swap cryptocurrencies by accessing  Bitpanda’s crypto trading platform. This can be done through RAKBank’s mobile banking app. (The platform is owned and operated by Bitpanda, to which RAKBANK facilitates the access.) 

The service is currently by invitation only and will be rolled out to more customers over the coming months.

All transactions will take place in dirhams and thus 'eliminating foreign currency transfer fees and forex losses altogether'.

Transactions are executed directly from the user’s RAKBank current or savings account, 'avoiding the need for lengthy and inefficient processes to move money in and out of crypto exchanges'.

Bitpanda is a digital asset infrastructure provider and offers services via its Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) regulated 'Bitpanda Broker MENA DMCC'. (Bitpanda is also regulated by multiple European regulators.).

Raheel Ahmed, Group CEO of RAKBANK, said, “We recognize the opportunity this solution will provide to  customers in the UAE, as we believe they deserve a more efficient and seamless crypto buying, selling and swapping journey that is fully regulated and entirely in AED."