MERGE Madrid 2025 | Creand’s Success Story: A Crypto-Pioneer Bank that Goes Beyond | CAM Stage

Good morning. Okay, let's start, as they say, from the beginning, shall we? How did your union, your convergence between a technological project and a private banking bank, an Andorran bank credit, come about? How did this union come about to create this wonderful project? Well, first of all, thank you very much, right?

Yes, no, to organize this event and for inviting us. So our relationship started a few years ago, right? Because we knew each other from previous situations and basically we were clear that we wanted to enter the crypto world with the help of a specialist and in this case an IS appeared and in this case Ángel and his team and we started working, it's practically a summary of 3 years of work in one minute. But yes, first of all , thank you for inviting me. Thank you for allowing us to be here, to tell you a little about what we have done, and it's just a little bit of what you mentioned.

We started getting to know each other a while ago, we had, I mean, since the Oni case we had been talking with banks and talking with players for a long time and when we started talking we found a bank that really wanted to bet on this, wanting to take it seriously and from there we went to give everything possible to make the project a success from minute zero. Did you want to experience crypto firsthand? You were seeing that people were demanding it. How was that integration? The reasons that led us to get involved in this are, firstly, because we had the management that was interested in exploring this field.

We believe that it is something we have to work on and get involved in . That's here to stay, and therefore our role is important. And the second thing was that our clients were starting to demand, right?, to have services of this type, and what was the trigger, right?, indisputably, is the fact of regulation.

We have operations in Andorra. In Andorra, we had the approval of the digital assets law a little before Mica, and that was the trigger that made us enter because we finally had the regulatory framework that gave us the law to be able to operate with guarantees, which is ultimately what is required of banks. In terms of challenges, I understand that taxation and technology are significant challenges, right? It's better to form an alliance, to start from scratch. In this case, we see that this success story has also come about thanks to ONIS, right?

Yes. Let's see, uh, this is a multidisciplinary project, right? Anyone who thinks this is a technology project or a digital asset project, I think they're mistaken. In other words, it has impacts on all areas of the bank, on all of them, in operations, in technologies. at risk.

Yes, no, no, in fact it's exactly what he's saying, uh, I mean, when, excuse me, when we started talking to many banks, everyone starts, well, technology, I mean, this is the commodity of all this almost because once it's set up it can be done by anyone. Everyone immediately tells you, well, compliance. Oh, and then I always say the same thing, don't I? When you get to the operational stage, you'll see all the problems. In other words, you have to overcome all the barriers and break them all down inside the houses because you have to adapt in every way, in every way .

In other words, it has an impact; it's 100% universal. Completely. What does it mean to be pioneers in this case ? Because you are doing something that very few dare to do in these times . No, there are some who are flirting with cryptocurrencies, but you already have your product, already launched, I mean, yes, launched.

Being a pioneer has its pros and cons, right? Well, it's clearly helped us, has n't it? In terms of image, right? In the sense that we continue in this leadership position that we have in Andorra, but it has its drawbacks, right? And the cons also weigh heavily because in the end it's not an easy project, it's a project that wears you down, right?

There comes a point where you even want to throw in the towel, but well, in the end we're still here, we've continued and after all, I think that what we 've brought to market has a very interesting differentiating factor. I'm still with you, Albert, because from the perspective of the clients, who in this case are the deciding factor that ultimately moves all the money, what was their perspective? Were you surprised? Were they really demanding it from you, or did they just see you? Yes, yes, in fact, we've only been active for a few months , we've only been active for two and a half months.

We have seen that the reception has been very positive. We've made an effort to integrate all of this into online banking in a way that's, let's say, a familiar user experience, and that's been very well received, hasn't it? The fact that you can integrate your positions, right? both traditional finance and the crypto portion in a single balance sheet, as that is very interesting for our client profile. And we have also identified that our private banking clients were somewhat eager, right?

, for some tool of this type so as not to have to go to certain jurisdictions to operate, in certain amounts, in certain ways, right?, which may not be so aligned with traditional banking. To add a little to what you're saying, one of the hypotheses here was, and when you raise this, as a bank, what you're asking is, are there really people who have digital assets and prefer to keep them in a bank rather than in a MetaMask or with a Ledger or similar, even other Cracken Vainas platforms, or even ONI itself? It didn't take us three months to validate that hypothesis. There are people who have a lot of assets and are interested in depositing them in a bank rather than leaving them on other types of platforms.

Therefore, this demonstrates that there is indeed interest, and not only because there are users who want to buy, but also because there are people who already demand to be able to take their assets to a bank, have them safely stored and kept in safe custody. So, viewed from both perspectives, from a technological standpoint, what are the benefits of offering crypto to end customers who come to a traditional bank, a credit bank, or a private bank ? Well, from, I mean, more than from the technology per se, which there are many of, I mean, if we were purely about technology, I was recently talking with a use case of a custodian, I won't say who, but that their custody model had many gaps, their team, let's see, Aunis is a company of 15 people, half of the people are compliance, half of the people are technology. Uh, we have a very cybersecurity-focused and paranoid approach to all this to stay calm, but there are other types of projects that don't have these attitudes. We 've seen it in the latest hacks , even bigger projects like the Bitgate hack with Safe, with all the funds they lost.

Ultimately, for a bank, all those layers of security are inherent; they're natural for the bank. In other words, you don't have to explain to them what a double check is, what Dora is, what operational resilience is—they already have all of this integrated. So, when you talk about technology, you say, uh, yes, I can set it up on my own, but I'm going to make mistakes that a bank has been naturally solving for years. And from a public perspective, what are those tangible advantages that the user perceives? I think the biggest effort has been integrating it into online banking, right?

Hey, you can do it in three clicks, right? Literally, right? Well, buy or sell, right? Or transfer because we have 247, right? 247 your positions in crypto assets, because that's really the key to success, isn't it?

In other words, we've managed to make this another option within our online banking platform . There is only a small onboarding process because the law requires us to have a suitability test, but once this process is completed, it is automatically integrated into your application in a way that our client already knows and feels comfortable with because it is the one they have been using for a long time. And we've talked about advantages, what are those differences that you have? already integrating everything from other companies or competitors, so to speak, that have those small spinoffs, right?, of approaching crypto, but in a specific way.

And no, I would highlight the fact that it has been integrated into online banking, because in the end this allows the customer to be autonomous, and then there are a couple of functionalities, right?, that I think are pioneering in the sense that they are not implemented in other banking solutions that we see, for example, in Spain, and they are basically outgoing and incoming transfers. Our service allows you to transfer from your external wallets to the wallets held by the bank, naturally going through all the anti-money laundering controls, but we have managed to deploy this service which is being very well received because people are repatriating, are returning, to consolidate their assets under the bank's custody. I did want to make a change, I mean, I totally agree because I think there are other players that we aren't. I mean, we're not the first bank to offer digital assets, that's clear, but we are the first bank to offer it from a 360-degree perspective.

Any user can deposit a Bitcoin today and withdraw it tomorrow, or deposit it on Saturday and sell it on Friday, or buy it on Sunday and withdraw it on Sunday. Few banks allow this, and with complete flexibility, because then all the typical problems arise when you start working with one of these banks. That perspective, which has a slightly higher risk appetite, is much lower. How has this been resolved? One of the points I mentioned is that the entire monitoring aspect of trans-crime, the internal regulatory compliance, and the system of alerts and patterns integrated into the solution provide that, in quotes, peace of mind to be able to do what is being done.

In the end, everything is monitored, everything is transacted, everything is controlled, and practically the same as how any other part of the bank works, or how the compliance department works, and this allows you to provide secure 24/7 operations for both the bank and the client. Of course, for us it has been about integrating the crypto operation within what is the operating model, the current operating model of the bank. We treat this type of asset exactly the same as other types of assets, whether they are funds, stocks, that has been the effort, right? It is true that this effort has allowed us to then naturally have a lot of operations that are already implemented by default. The whole issue of reporting to regulators, the whole issue of taxation, right?

As we discussed in the previous session, the core banking system already does this automatically because it already does it for the rest of the assets, so it makes perfect sense for it to do so, right? For this type, right? In this case, Ángel, I want to ask you because, after all, Crean is a client, but what is that language translation like when you go into an institution and you have to explain to them, right?, that, hey, I want crypto in my bank, okay? Yes, but it's the language, uh, already accompanied by "How do you do it?"

How do you do it? Well, that's a very good question. Well, in Cran's case it was very simple and the whole conversation has always been very natural throughout the partnership we've been working on. This first point is not always the case with banking; in fact, it is not the norm with banking, and this is something to be grateful for. And the normal thing here, I mean, what I usually say is that my job is to go around with a hammer breaking down walls, because you start by talking to the product guy, explaining it to him in the language of the business guy, explaining it to him in the language that the business guy can understand.

You can understand how it increases your wealth, you can understand use cases, you can understand how it generates these benefits for the bank. Once you just have to and you break through that first wall, you go to the second wall, you have to go to the legal team, explain to the legal team where the reassurances are, those risks, to the compliance team, because there is no problem. When you break this, you have to go to the operations guy and explain how this works. And each person must be spoken to in their own language. Language.

Um, we avoid a lot of it, I mean, you do a lot of educational work, that's clear, but we avoid crypto language a lot and we try to go much more towards banking language so that we can be understood because, in fact, I've said this many times, we create analogies, right? So, we were going to see how the bank was already solving those challenges, right? In the traditional way. And what does it contribute, right? The layer, right?

Of adding the crypto product, right? In this case, although we can't talk about figures, but what signals are you seeing in the market, in the users, that really confirm that idea you had of incorporating crypto into Crean? In fact, we can't talk because we don't have the means, we're not fair, right? In the first few months and we don't have it yet, but the truth is that the acceptance has been very positive in the retail part, but especially in the private banking part, right? Where we have begun to see that indeed those capitals, right?

, that had left, right?, are beginning to return, right? Uh, why? Because in the end they had left because we really couldn't provide the service, but now that we do, the client prefers to have it integrated in the same position and with an entity they have been working with for many years. Looking ahead, we're talking about terminology, and we've been discussing how complicated it is to bring crypto language into banking, right?

What do you think? What kind of approach will you have, good, we're also going to offer, uh, farming, uh, staking, all that? How does all this translate to the public? Do you have it on a visible roadmap, a vision? Yes.

I mean, I think it makes perfect sense that once we've developed the custody service, we somehow add a layer of value to it, right? Added value, isn't it? And words, right? Like the ones you've used for staking and other things, I think it makes sense for us to consider them in the coming months. In the end, they are just words, but ones we are already using in traditional finance, whether it's deposits or portfolio management.

In the end, the first thing was to remove the custody and now build a service layer that gives value to this custody and these words are going to be there. Albert, you're the voice of banking right now, very advanced crypto, aren't you? In this case, speaking of stablecoins, CBCs, what is your perspective from Andorra? Our current position here is weita itself. We're seeing a lot of movement, aren't we?

Wednesday BVA announced, right? Launch of their new volcoin next year. I think it's the word that's been used the most these past few days, isn't it? In the in in in Merch. I have a bit of a gazpacho feeling, huh, and we have to see how this ends up evolving.

For now, we're going to stay in a "no" position, to see how things develop, to see what Mica's impact is , right? Real, what is Teter's move, what is the European Central Bank doing ? I mean, I think that in the coming months we're going to see, right? There are going to be changes, and from there we're going to move on to this. Add to that the fact that, I mean, we're in Madrid, in Europe, we talk a lot about Mica, but this is being launched in Andorra with Andorran regulations and in an ecosystem that is Andorra where the euro, although it may seem the same, is not exactly the same.

So, perhaps we 're no longer talking about yet another bank launching yet another stablecoin, but perhaps much more strategic moves that would make sense at a national level. But well, this is something to see and we will be there because apart from the fact that it is important to give that support to Crean, one of the tasks we did was to jointly create or ensure that Crean had all its licenses, but that ONIS also had a presence in the country and had licenses in the country. We are the only external custodian that is currently licensed in Andorra. And we did this precisely to take advantage of that momentum the country had, that capacity, that advantage over Mica, which already had a license long before, etc., etc.

And I think we have to see it with the nuance of Andorra to understand that it's not the same as BBVA wanting to launch a stablecoin here, but that there may be other types of situations and circumstances there. Well, we 've talked about these real-world use cases that we're creating here, success stories. Let's hope it's not the first or the last. I think many more will come. Future and vision, I believe we have it.

We are realizing that everything is going well, it's given me an extra R of work, so I can say that there will be new things coming, so that's really great. Well then, a big round of applause for these two people. Hey Ángel, it's a pleasure to be able to talk to you. Thank you so much. And let's move on to the next table.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, guys.