Standard Bank has begun piloting a current-account linked bitcoin wallet developed by South African outfit Switchless.
Speaking at Finovate Europe, Switchless co-founder Marcus Swanepoel said that his firm's technology enables Standard Bank account holders to buy bitcoin with their sovereign currency account and store it in the secure wallet.
The wallet is currently only being tested by a small pilot group inside Standard Bank and there has been no decision made yet on whether to roll it out to the public.
The version demonstrated at Finovate lets users buy, sell and save bitcoins from within the Standard Bank online banking portal. Online banking credentials are used to verify the identity of the bitcoin wallet holders.
Other features shown off by Switchless include a merchant plugin which allows online retailers to accept bitcoin as payment for goods.