Morabanc Keynote: A Bank’s Journey into Digital Assets: Lessons for the Future of Finance | EBC11

Hi, good afternoon everyone. Thank you for being here after lunch. It's always, you know, difficult slot, but I'll try to make it as enjoyable as possible. I'm Carlos Ali. I'm the head of digital assets for Mora Bank.

We are a traditional bank uh based in Andor and we um had the basically the um the luck of entering digital asset uh space um like three years ago and basically um my keynote is about lessons learned from a traditional bank entering the digital asset space. Well, uh the uncomfortable truth is that basically three years ago, you know, it was really difficult to imagine uh being a traditional bank offering uh digital assets to our clients. But basically what really changed for us was um client demand. Basically uh we couldn't really deny anymore uh the pressure that we were experiencing from our clients to um start basically understanding this uh this new environment which basically uh led us to start like investigating um and and really going into places in which we weren't really comfortable being. Okay.

Uh that was a really really important step. Okay. just listen uh trying to basically get out of the or our our comfort zone that we've been there for many many years. So as a traditional bank when entering a new space a new business line not just digital assets but any other business line you kind of face four simultaneously challenges. Okay.

One is you need regulatory clarity. By that time we all know what is this but three years ago wasn't that clear. We had we we were very lucky because in Andor we had a a specific uh regulation around digital assets which um it was quite uh innovative at the time and basically went ahead of [clears throat] Mika and other regulations. allowed us to basically experiment. Um we although the other uh issue is resource mobilization okay um trying to get the digital asset expertise into a traditional setup is always a challenge communication.

Okay. It is really important not to alienate your current uh client base at the same but at the same time to try to attract a new kind of uh client and uh basically and uh and and and also set setting expectations. expectations are always difficult to to set on when you are talking uh on um you know very type of deep tech transformations or deep tape or or deep u uh challenges uh around new products. So lesson one okay is uh regulatory clarity. Uh if you have that then you have a lot of a lot of uh um basically uh terrain gained in that sense and you and and what is true when you are talking about new uh environments is that basically if you wait for it to be perfect then you will never get there.

So we we like to operate in a matter on in in a in a in a in a mindset in which basically we think that it is better than than perfect and you need to keep you know very open channels with your regulators because at the end of the day they are going to become your biggest partners. Lesson two uh managing expectations. You need to manage expectations from your traditional client base and the new clients that you are trying to acquire. Okay, this is very important and we basically think about a three segment approach in which um you know education is very important. things like this, coming to these types of events, you know, putting our logo uh together with all these innovative companies is really important to educate to educate internally, to educate externally, to educate upwards, to educate downwards.

That's very very important. Mobilizing resources. Okay, most of us, you know, when when you look at basically your current uh staff or your current team, you always think, okay, you know, uh you know, they don't know they they you know, I'm going to need to do a lot of work. It's true, but the thing is without them, you're not going to be able to progress. So it is really important to engage your current employees, your current teams to educate them to encourage them uh to to adopt new technologies as well as h do some some some hiring strategic hiring around digital assets.

But this is not a matter in which you're going to bring Cristiano Ronaldo and is going to basically uh win all the matches. It doesn't work like that. No, culture is really important and just to bring someone from the outside into a culture like a traditional bank is extremely difficult. So you need to make this kind of uh um this kind of equilibrium. Okay.

Um and also it is really important that uh you um well communicate communicate properly. Your communication strategy has to be like spoton in that sense. Uh you need to to basically be very very consistent in your message. uh try to basically uh you know keep keep providing this trust that you've built over the o over the years or with your traditional base as well as also offering new uh messages and new opportunities for the younger generations or for the crypto or digital asset oriented uh clientele and this is really really important. You you cannot do this alone.

This is very very important. We we we learned that we we understood this from the beginning and we tried to basically search for the best partners for our um for our journey. For instance, uh something that is really important for us is understanding uh all the um you know the K KY KYC AML implications of accepting digital assets. So we partnered with chain analysis for that. we've uh done uh a great deal of uh business thanks to uh being able to understand onchain analytics and to understand what the money is coming from and to be able to accept that.

Um we also partnered with investment uh companies like CIS uh an investment uh Swiss investment firm in which we collaborate a lot with them. Um there are fields we we we uh offer our main service our main offering is custody. So we partner with Fireblocks as we consider them uh you know one of the best partners that you can have right now in that sense and also in places in which we don't we don't arrive because you know we are not an exchange we do not we are not able to offer 200 uh different uh investments we partners with companies like 21 shares which basically let us uh offer uh more diversified approach to our clients. So just um I'm running out of time but just where where are we now? Uh basically I believe that we are facing the future of of banking banking is not going to be anymore traditional or digital.

It's going to be traditional and digital. I believe that institutions that master both traditional and digital and bridges between them will lead the change but very importantly always maintaining the trust. This is what we are characterized for. So we are not we as Mora Bank we're here basically we're speaking in front of you. We are in this type of events.

Uh we are not just we're trying to lead to leading to adoption to to but while stringing staying uh true to our principles that we've built over 70 years of existence. Um so I I believe this is just beginning and um I I don't I don't have any time for questions but I'll be around should you want to discuss. Thank you.

Actually you do have time for questions.

Yes.

Yeah. You can take one or two questions if anybody's open. This is your chance to ask somebody who's actually done the work in a bank and made it happen. Perfect. Yeah.

Hello Carlos, thanks for being here. I have a question. What was the key challenge uh to convince Morabang leadership?

Our biggest challenge. Our biggest challenge. Well, our biggest challen was basically cultural uh the the culture. Okay. Uh trying to convince the board no.

Okay. Different.

Okay. Okay. Different challenges. Um first of all is culture. Okay.

trying to convince the board of a traditional family-owned bank that we need to in into a new business which is which was one still is perceived as a high risk and a complicated uh technological that no one really understands. Okay. Um that was the biggest challenge and the uh answer to that challenge was listen we are a bank we are here to provide a service society and now we have a you know a big percentage of people or a big percentage but have a substantial percentage of people that are asking these type of services. It is not a matter of basically uh positioning ourselves whether uh you need to invest in bitcoin whe you need to invest in ethereum it's going to go up it's going to go down nothing like that at this point at this point is about offering and this is why I believe the custody uh part is something that any bank or every bank should have apart apart from that that was called and then all the regula all the regulatory challenges that come from being the first. Okay.

Now, people coming behind us, well, they have a road or they have a, you know, they have basically some guidelines built because we went first. And being first is always a u is always painful. But, uh, you know, uh, sometimes you also get the rewards of being the first. I answer your question. Yeah.

I guess

the biggest challenge was uh telling them that it works better than the microphones, the blockchain technology. Yeah, thank you very much. Very very good presentation. Uh I enjoyed it myself, I must say. So I hope you enjoy the rest of the conference and we will get everybody else on stage.

And a big round of applause, of course. [laughter]