The executive emphasized that HSBC is less supportive of cryptocurrencies than other banks, saying "I do worry about the sustainability of the prices of cryptocurrencies."
CEO: HSBC Will Not Enter the Crypto space
Noel Quinn, the chief executive of HSBC, discussed his bank's position on cryptocurrencies in an interview with CNBC-TV18 last week. He reaffirmed, "As a bank, we're not entering the cryptocurrency sector, trading, or exchanges."
The HSBC CEO stressed how unstable cryptocurrencies are, saying, "I do worry about the sustainability of the valuations of crypto and I have done for a while." I won't make any future projections regarding where it will go. Quinn then went on to discuss why HSBC is less supportive of cryptocurrencies than other banks. I questioned its viability as a product for many of the people in the market today, he said. Thus, HSBC has a more pessimistic view of cryptocurrencies than other banks.
Since bitcoin is so volatile, it poses really challenging problems about how to value it on clients' balance sheets, Quinn stated in May of last year. I consider bitcoin as more of an asset class than a means of payment. We are not interested in bitcoin as an asset class, he continued, given its volatility. As an asset class, we are not pushing it in our wealth management company.
Quinn stated at the time that we're not rushing towards stablecoins for similar reasons. According to him, stablecoins do have some reserve backing to address the issues with stored value, but it depends on the sponsoring organisation as well as the reserve's structure and accessibility.
HSBC Canada informed customers that its cryptocurrency policy had changed in April of last year and said that it would no longer support the purchase or exchange of goods related to virtual currencies. For instance, customers were unable to purchase Microstrategy (MSTR-US) shares through HSBC Invest Direct.
