Russian Tinkoff bank acquires stake in Swiss Aximetria

Russian bank Tinkoff has revealed it purchased a stake in Swiss digital company Aximetria.

TCS Group Holding, the owner of Tinkoff, hasn’t announced the exact numbers but, according to unofficial sources, the group may now hold approximately 83.2% of this Swiss-incorporated entity.

Recently, TCS Group bought 4,449 shares at 100 Swiss francs ($110) each, and the total share capital of the company stood at around 535,000 francs ($588,000).

The company’s representatives then said the details of the transaction will be published in the group’s annual reports.

“Aximetria will develop as part of the international expansion of the Tinkoff Group in compliance with all the requirements of the jurisdictions of international presence,” the company said.

Its website confirmed the acquisition, noting that the start-up is already part of TCS Group Holding PLC and that Aximetria was among the first companies to receive permission from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) to process crypto transactions.

It seems that the bank’s stance on cryptocurrencies changed since few months ago, Tinkoff Group CEO Oliver Hughes said it was not possible for Tinkoff to provide crypto services because of the stance of the Russian financial regulator on the matter.

“Currently, we don’t have a mechanism to offer them this product in Russia, because the Central Bank is taking a very tough position,” Hughes then commented.

Positive moves in the Russian crypto space

Commenting on the acquisition, Nikita Zuborev, senior analyst at crypto exchange aggregator Bestchange.ru, commented that “any inflow of capital from the traditional financial market into the crypto space can be regarded as a positive long-term factor and a certain guarantee for stability and acceptance”.

He stressed the deal would open another gateway between the traditional financial system and the crypto industry.

Maria Stankevich, director of development at Eastern-European crypto exchange Exmo, called the acquisition an “interesting and bold deed” coming from Russia and added this could challenge other Russian banks, like Alfa-Bank for example, to consider similar opportunities.

Recently, Russia’s largest and state-owned banking institution, Sberbank, started with the blockchain ETF offering.

Policy makers in Russia are said to be working on a new law in order to ‘protect’ non-professional investors from rash investments in cryptocurrencies.