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U.S. Bank will custody bitcoins. U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest U.S. commercial bank by asset size, plans to offer a cryptocurrency custodial service to customers. The initiative is aimed at institutional private fund managers in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands. They will be able to keep private keys of bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin wallets at the bank. Support for Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies will be implemented later. The service is provided in cooperation with NYDIG. U.S. Bank will verify the origin of cryptocurrency in accordance with standard identification and anti-money laundering procedures before connecting customers to the service.

Swiss Banks Switch To Voice Biometrics

All banks strive to minimize the cost of customer service, and the issue of combating fraudulent theft from bank accounts is also an acute issue. New banking technologies can reduce the time spent on customer identification. Voice biometrics will help the banker to establish his persona in a matter of seconds.

Each owner of an account or card in a Swiss bank had to deal with a situation when it was necessary to go through identity verification over the phone. In this case, it was necessary to answer questions, for example - "mother's maiden name?", Or "what is your date of birth?" It takes time and additional resources.

In order to speed up the process, Swiss bankers began to use new technologies that make it possible to verify identity much faster and more reliably. The computer compares the caller's voice to the stored customer voice sample. If the votes match, you have successfully passed the identification.

A person's voice is as unique as a fingerprint or the structure of the retina. Each personality has characteristic sounds that depend on the individual structure of his speech apparatus. This allows you to make an "electronic fingerprint" of any person's voice. After that, recognition can be carried out, provided that the call occurs without the influence of extraneous sounds - the noise of the wind or working equipment. When comparing voices, more than 100 parameters are analyzed. The vocal tract of any person remains unchanged even in the case of a cold, and such behavioral factors as speech speed, accent or pronunciation do not affect verification.

The Swiss banks Bank Cler and Postfinance have already implemented such identification. One of the first to introduce such technology is the Swiss Migros Bank, this institution stores voice samples of 23 thousand of its clients. Each client gives his consent to be identified with the bank using this technology, and the consent can be revoked at any time.

Ukraine Adopted A Law On Virtual Assets

The Verkhovna Rada at a meeting on September 8 supported in the second reading and in general, draft law No. 3637, which will legalize virtual assets and business in this area in Ukraine.

This law is basic and defines the legal status of virtual assets, thereby providing legal protection to users and market participants. Thus, foreign and Ukrainian crypto-exchanges will be able to officially operate in Ukraine, and banks will be able to open accounts for crypto companies. In addition, this means that Ukrainians will be able to declare their income in virtual assets.

Earlier, the BP Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy said that the volume of transactions in Ukraine with virtual assets is about $ 150-200 million per day, and the capitalization of virtual assets is more than $ 2 billion.

As explained in the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the law is based on the current standards for regulating operations with virtual assets of the international group for combating money laundering (FATF). They set the rules for service providers related to the circulation of virtual assets and help to blur this market.

In order to carry out activities related to the circulation of virtual assets, service providers will need to disclose ownership structure to determine the ultimate beneficial owners. Such owners must have an impeccable business reputation, as well as establish internal financial monitoring procedures to prevent money laundering.

The law comes into force on the day when the accompanying law on amendments to the Tax Code regarding the specifics of taxation of transactions with virtual assets is adopted.