ABN Amro's Innovation Director Rejects Bitcoin over "Poor Image"
The director of the ABN Amro's Innovation Centre is apparently not a fan of Bitcoin, a decentralized payment system. According to a report, chief Arjan Van Os exemplified Bitcoin's previous track record to prove his point, saying that their bank does not want to associate itself with anything that has/had a role in financing illicit activities. Instead, the bank wishes to experiment with its underlying technology - the blockchain. "We want to prevent bitcoin's poor image reflecting on what we do with the blockchain, it's underlying technology," Van Os stated. "We see many opportunities [in....
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Contrary to speculation and discussion from earlier today, Dutch banking giant ABN AMRO is not working on or releasing a bitcoin wallet to its customers as a part of its banking services. Social media was abuzz with speculation that a bitcoin wallet might be in the offing by ABN AMRO , a major European bank with a global presence, based in Netherlands. A webpage surfaced, purporting to conduct a survey among ABN AMRO customers by the bank’s Innovation Centre. It stated: From the Innovation Centre of ABN AMRO, we follow the development of bitcoin closely. At present, we examine whether the....
The head of innovation at ABN Amro has said the Dutch state-owned bank wants to stay away from bitcoin, but is interested in blockchain technology. According to a report, Arjan van Os, the head of the bank's innovation centre, cited the bitcoin's associations with drug trafficking and illicit activities as the reason behind the bank's decision to distance itself from the digital currency. He said: "We want to prevent bitcoin's poor image reflecting on what we do with the blockchain, it's underlying technology. We see many opportunities [in the blockchain]. Bitcoin itself is outmoded." His....
ABN Amro has become the latest financial institution to join the R3 blockchain consortium. The Dutch bank is an investor in blockchain startup Digital Asset Holdings and is working with local academics on applications of the technology. The bank has also been doing internal work of its own, leading to speculation earlier this fall that it was developing a bitcoin wallet. As an R3 member, the bank said that it expected to build on its past efforts. Arjan van Os, chief of ABN AMRO’s Innovation Centre, said in a statement: “This is exactly the right time for us to step in. We already spend a....
ABN AMRO, the leading Dutch bank recently conducted a survey to gauge its customers' interest in using bank-run Bitcoin wallet. Read more... ABN AMRO Bank customers may soon have access to a Bitcoin wallet provided by their banking service provider. The Dutch banking major recently ran a survey on its website, to gauge its customers’ interest in Bitcoin. The survey was part of ABN AMRO Innovation Centre’s initiative to understand whether the Bitcoin community in Netherlands prefers to use a Bitcoin wallet developed by the bank or not. The initiative doesn’t come as a surprise as the bank’s....
Writing on the bank's official website, ABN AMRO Head of Innovation Arjan van Os, praises the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin in an article titled "The Next Big Thing." Dutch state-owned ABN AMRO Bank is a product of a long history of mergers and acquisitions that date to 1765, making it one of the oldest active banks. In 2007, ABN AMRO was the second-largest bank in the Netherlands and the eighth largest in Europe by assets. Then the bank was acquired by a consortium of international banks and eventually bailed out and nationalized by the Dutch government, which expressed intentions....