US community bank Customers Bank has hired a raft of new employees to broaden the depth and expertise of its nascent digital asset banking business.
The seven new team members, recruited from Silvergate Capital, include professionals across business development, technology, onboarding, payments, BSA and compliance.
“We made the commitment to be one of the top financial institutions serving commercial cryptocurrency and digital asset institutions and we understand all requirements, pitfalls and the possibilities for crypto customers,” states Sam Sidhu, president and chief executive officer of Customers Bank. “These clients require a financial partner that has the technology and agility to scale with their requirements throughout the entire ecosystem, not just in one or two aspects of their business.”
Pennsylvania-based Cuustomers Bank signalled its intention to compete in the digital asset space in October, onboarding cryptocurrency firms as customers and launching a real-time crypto-to-USD payments platfrom utilising the bank’s own internal digital fiat token.
Sidhu says: “Our investment in building out the best crypto and digital asset team signals we are a serious participant in this space and committed to this business line for the long term. The corresponding increase in our share price since the launch of our Customers Bank Instant Token (CBITTM) is helping us drive and return value to our investors.”
Customers Bank recruited Robb Layfield as managing director, Digital Assets and Dan Devine as SVP, Digital Asset Product Development, along with five other Silvergate bankers to round out the existing team and expand on the bank’s broad coverage of the crypto industry.
Christopher Smalley, managing director and head of digital banking at Customers Bank, comments: “We have had a successful soft launch of CBITTM in the fourth quarter of 2021 led by $1.5 billion of non-interest bearing deposit growth, which was limited to 25 commercial clients. In the first quarter of 2022, we will continue expanding our crypto and digital asset customers base, the products that serve them, and our associated deposits.”