VA Standards Policy
Standard Chartered Bank (“Standard Chartered” or the “Bank”) is firmly committed to thoroughly evaluating Virtual Assets (VAs) before offering any services related to them. For each VA, Standard Chartered will conduct an assessment that goes beyond technological and regulatory checks to ensure full compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements.
Scope:
These standards aim to provide a single and consistent approach for the Bank to assess the inherent risk of a VA including its protocol (i.e. network) and any tokens (i.e. coins or currencies) associated with the VA so they may be considered for use in the Bank’s products and services, or the Bank’s own VA holdings. These Standards describe a non-exhaustive list of relevant risk factors which may be present in VAs, and minimum requirements to perform a VA risk assessment against these risk factors which must be met prior to a VA’s approval or rejection for admittance by Standard Chartered.
Assessment of Each VA
Standard Chartered shall provide its services only in respect of VAs that have been approved by the Bank. Before the approval of any VA in relation to which the Bank provides services, the Bank shall undertake a due diligence exercise and assessment of the particular VA in accordance with the procedures set out below.
Evaluation of VAs:
- Technology Evaluation: The Bank will undertake a comprehensive technology evaluation that ensures, but is not limited to, that the VA is sufficiently decentralised, high levels of consensus performance is met, no instances of network downtimes and has high levels of community engagement within the developer community This evaluation will also consider the VA’s compatibility with industry standards and best practices.
- Governance Evaluation: The Bank will conduct an evaluation of the governance structure of the VA where VAs must have clear and transparent development roadmaps, frequent communication of major changes, successful implementation of critical upgrades, and incentive models aligned with the fundamental vision of the VA.
- Reputational, Environment & Social Impact Evaluation: The Bank shall assess the reputational and ESG impacts of VAs to ensure that, but not limited to, the fundamental vision is to improve the financial inclusion, does not require high energy usage to reach consensus and overall no adverse media or pending regulatory actions concerning any of the key entities or individuals involved.
- Risk Management Evaluation – The Bank will assess the VA’s terms and conditions, market capitalisation, fully diluted value, liquidity, whether these metrics have declined over time, and, where the VA represents rights to other assets, the enforceability of those rights. It will evaluate the VA’s design, features, and use cases (whether or not intended by the issuer or relevant developers), as well as any factors that may make the VA susceptible to price manipulation. The Bank will also take into account the VA’s prospective development (e.g., any “roadmap”) as communicated by the issuer and/or relevant developers. This will support the Bank in implementing appropriate mitigations for the risks identified. In addition, SC will consider the background of the VA’s issuer, including but not limited to the issuer’s relevant experience in the VA sector and whether it has been subject to any investigations or claims relating to fraud or deceit.
Clients Assets Safeguarding
Standard Chartered custody solution is designed to meet the industry’s highest standard of trust & security, technical robustness, governance and compliance and operational excellence. The following components collectively define the architecture’s strength and is recognized as a leading institutional-grade custody solution:
- Top Tier Cryptographic Security: Private keys are generated and stored inside FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certified HSMs (Hardware Security Modules). These HSMs are tamper-proof and self-destruct keys if physically compromised.
- Cold Storage Security with Real-Time Access: Standard Chartered’s platform achieves the safety of cold storage (offline wallets) while allowing instant, automated transactions. All transaction signing happens within air-gapped HSMs with no internet access, no manual transfers, and no human key handling.
- Segregated Wallet Architecture: Standard Chartered maintains all customer assets 1:1 – the details of which are frequently shared with regulatory authorities. Furthermore, client assets are held separately from Standard Chartered’s own funds.
- Compliance With Global Standards: The custody platform adheres to global standards like SOC, ISO 27001, GDPR, and is regularly reviewed by internal audit and second-line functions.
VAs Offered:
Standard Chartered offers the following VA (cryptocurrency) pairs for trading on the SC Mobile app.
- BTCUSD (Bitcoin-US Dollar)
- BTCAED (Bitcoin-UAE Dirham)
- ETHUSD (Ether-US Dollar)
- ETHAED (Ether-UAE Dirham)
Order Routing Practices
Standard Chartered works with its liquidity provider and gets quotes for its customers based on several factors including but not limited to price, latency, previous data for fills, tokens, and volatility.
VA Pricing
Standard Chartered requests for quotes from its liquidity provider. Once it receives a quote, the Bank charges a markup on the quote received from the liquidity provider.
Responsible Individuals
- Rola Abu Manneh – CEO (nominated as CEO of VARA business function)
- Rajesh Kannan – Head, WRB UAE and International Banking EMEA (nominated as Business Head for VARA business function)
- Zivai Ziweya – Director, CFCR Governance UAE & DIFC (nominated as Chief Compliance Officer for VARA business function)
- Craig Davidson – Head, FCC, UAE (nominated as MLRO for VARA business function)
Risk Disclosure
- Introduction
- Your access to use the Cryptoasset application is at your own risk.
- This Part provides a summary of certain risks relating to the use of the Cryptoasset application. There are other risks involved in using the Cryptoasset application.
- You must read the risk factors contained in these Terms in conjunction with any other risks factors that the Bank may advise you of from time to time. You should also seek appropriate and independent advice and conduct an independent analysis regarding any proposed Transaction.
- Risks relating to the use of the internet or other electronic medium
- Any communication, transaction, or information (including any document), transmitted via the internet or other electronic medium involves risks. By accessing the Cryptoasset application, you acknowledge that you understand and accept the following risks:
- We may use such authentication technologies as the Bank deems appropriate. No authentication, verification or computer security technology is completely secure or safe. You agree to bear all risks of unauthorised access/use, hacking or identity theft.
- The internet or other electronic media (including without limitation electronic devices, services of third-party telecom service providers such as mobile phones or other handheld trading devices or interactive voice response systems) are an inherently unreliable form of communication, and such unreliability may be beyond the Bank’s control.
- Any information (including any document) transmitted, or communication or transactions made, over the internet or through other electronic media (including electronic devices, services of third party telecom service providers such as mobile phones or other handheld trading device or interactive voice response systems) may be subject to interruption, transmission blackout, delayed transmission due to data volume, internet traffic, market volatility or incorrect data transmission (including incorrect price quotation) or stoppage of price data feed due to the public nature of the internet or other electronic media. As a result of such unreliability
- there may be time-lags, delays, failures or loss of data or loss of confidentiality in the transmission of data and receipt of instructions.
- while the Bank may believe certain data to be reliable, there may be no independent basis for the Bank to verify or contradict the accuracy or completeness of such data.
- Instructions may be executed at prices different from those prevailing at the time the Instructions were given.
- You understand that this is not an exhaustive list of all the consequences arising from such unreliability and you agree that you cannot infer any recommendation or endorsement from any data provided on the Cryptoasset application.
- You are solely responsible for preventing anything which may be harmful to any equipment that you use in connection with the Cryptoasset application (including any computer virus, malicious program, or harmful component) from affecting any such equipment, regardless of whether it originated from the Cryptoasset application, or any other product or service provided by the Bank or the Bank’s affiliates.
- Risks relating to authorised persons
- There are substantial risks in allowing another person to transact or operate any account you have with us, and it is possible that Instructions could be given by persons who are not properly authorised. You accept all the risks of such an operation and irrevocably release the Bank from all liabilities arising out of or in connection with such Instructions, whether taken by the Bank or otherwise.
- Risk of changes that could affect your position
- Changes in prices, rates of exchange and other factors may impact upon your transactions. The Bank is entitled to act upon your Instructions, and you cannot assume that the Bank will warn you if your Instructions are ill-timed or inadvisable for any reason or if the Instructions are likely to cause you loss.
- Before you give any Instruction, you should ensure you understand the financial aspects of the proposed transaction and obtain a clear explanation of all commission, fees, and other charges for which you will be liable. These matters can reduce your net profit (if any) or increase your loss.
- Cryptocurrency Trading: Cryptocurrency trading involves risks. Fluctuation in the exchange rate of a cryptocurrency may result in gains or significant losses if the client converts deposit from the fiat currency to crypto currency or vice versa.
