Sygna Bridge, the “market-ready” solution provider developed specifically for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to fulfill the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendation 16’s “Travel Rule,” has confirmed that Switzerland-based online bank Dukascopy Bank SA has joined its network of over 20 VASPs operating across the globe.
As mentioned in a release shared with CI:
“Dukascopy Bank will implement and participate in the development of Sygna Bridge, allowing it to transmit secure compliance data with other Sygna Alliance members, as well as other interoperable technical solutions.”
Michael Ou, CEO at CoolBitX and creator of Sygna Bridge, noted that as the traditional market and virtual asset sectors begin to converge, his company is seeing more banks, financial institutions, and wealth managers offering crypto-related services to their clients.
Ou pointed out that these financial services providers may be under a lot of regulatory scrutiny. That’s why they might need a solution that can match their expectations of “a seamless, secure, and effective technical solution to meet the FATF Travel Rule.”
He added:
“We are pleased to add Dukascopy Bank to our list of VASPs in the Sygna Alliance, and honored that they have chosen Sygna Bridge as their solution provider. While we move closer to FATF’s July 2021 deadline for Travel Rule implementation, we are working with VASPs, and other technical solutions to ensure maximum interoperability and integration across the industry.”
Dukascopy Bank offers various trading services such as leveraged CFD trading on the price movements of crypto-assets, its derivatives or value estimations. Dukascopy is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). It has notably become the first bank internationally to issue its own digital currency (called Dukascoin).
Dukascoin has been issued on a public blockchain network. Dukascopy Bank will reportedly be using Sygna Bridge to “transmit crypto transaction information required under the Travel Rule such as originator and beneficiary names, addresses, and other customer identification details,” the release confirmed.
Andre Duka, CEO at Dukascopy Bank, stated that as the bank gets even more involved in crypto-related businesses, there’s a need to “make decisive efforts in ensuring the secure transmission of data and information required by the Travel Rule.”
Duka also mentioned:
“With the growing regulatory oversight on crypto transfers between VASPs, it was important to choose a solution provider that is fully operational as well as interoperable with other solutions. Our partnership with Sygna Bridge allows us to focus on serving our customers and delivering value, knowing that our current and future legal and regulatory requirements are fulfilled.”
As confirmed in the announcement, CoolBitX has introduced Sygna Bridge 2.0 which offers support for the InterVASP Messaging Standard (IVMS101), which is the Joint Working Group’s unifying messaging standard (deployed after several months of technical enhancements and extensive testing with VASP partners based in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan).
In September 2020, Sygna Bridge demonstrated its compatibility with established information sharing platform Travel Rule Information Sharing Alliance (TRISA) via its proof-of-concept (PoC) that “enables message interoperability and mutual VASP authentication.”