By Tom Wilson
LONDON, April 12 (Reuters) - HSBC has banned
customers of its online share-trading platform from buying or
moving into their accounts MicroStrategy Inc stock, a
message seen by Reuters showed, calling it a "virtual currency
product".
The bank will not facilitate the buying or exchange of
products related to or referencing the performance of virtual
currencies, the message to an HSBC InvestDirect client said.
Bitcoin is the largest and best-known virtual currency.
MicroStrategy did not respond to an email and phone message
requesting comment. The U.S. business software firm is led by
bitcoin proponent Michael Saylor and owns bitcoin worth billions
of dollars.
While HSBC will allow the holding, sale and outgoing
transfer of MicroStrategy shares, it will forbid new purchases
or incoming transfers, said the message dated March 29.
"HSBC has no appetite for direct exposure to virtual
currencies and limited appetite to facilitate products or
securities that derive their value from VCs (virtual
currencies)," HSBC said in a statement.
HSBC InvestDirect is available to customers in countries
including Canada and Britain.
The bank said its policy towards cryptocurrencies had been
in place since 2018 and is kept under review. It could not
immediately say which countries the ban applied to.
The move comes amid a growing embrace of cryptocurrencies by
large financial firms, companies and investors seeking yield in
a world of ultra-low interest rates.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc said last month it would
offer investments in bitcoin and other digital assets to its
wealth management clients. Morgan Stanley has also
started offering clients investments to the emerging asset
class.
MicroStrategy has along with Tesla Inc and payments
firm Square Inc become one of several publicly listed
U.S. companies to buy large amounts of bitcoin for its treasury.
MicroStrategy said last week it owns around 91,579 bitcoins.
Its holdings, worth around $5.5 billion according to a Reuters
calculation, are equal to around 80% of its $6.8 billion market
capitalisation.
(Reporting by Tom Wilson
Editing by David Holmes)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)