According to Finextra, METACO, the leading provider of digital asset management technology to complex, global financial institutions, today announces that Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), one of the largest universal banks in the Philippines, has gone live on METACO’s flagship platform, Harmonize, to pilot the launch of crypto services for its clients.

UnionBank is one of a select cohort of institutions granted a crypto license under the supervision of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). UnionBank is launching a pilot program for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) custody and trading services for select retail customers, a major step forward in the bank’s exploration of blockchain technology, which follows other similar digital asset initiatives, such as launching its own stablecoin for remittance payments or launching its presence in the Metaverse economy. The president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr, heralded the importance of blockchain and digital asset technologies at the recent opening of UnionBank’s Innovation Campus, outlining the power of the technology in furthering financial inclusion in the Philippines.