Page 2 of 2

What is Sygnum doing to ensure it doesn’t fall victim to a money laundering scheme?

In principle, blockchain technology is more effective in combating money laundering than traditional banking because of the traceability and irreversibility of transactions.

«We have to prove we can make money»

Our proprietary tools in this field were in the center of regulatory scrutiny in recent months and are seen as a benchmark. In addition we have a committee at Board level dedicated to ensuring effectiveness of anti-money laundering measures – which is unusual for a bank.

You have a license. When will you be fully open for business?

We’re onboarding a small number of clients now, followed by an audit and then a larger number of clients with another audit following under a phased regulatory standard approach. We expect to be open for our clients generally in another two or three months.

What is Sygnum offering that nobody else can?

Our bread and butter from day one will be accounts, custody, brokerage and trading between stablecoins and cryptocurrencies as a one-stopp shop and in a regulated bank environment. That’s a first step.

What comes after that?

Fund and credit products are next, and tokenizing stocks, bonds and other asset classes will follow. As an example, we’re in the process of setting up a process for medium-sized companies to issue and trade shares in a tokenized way, a market that does not yet exist today.

How soon will that happen, and where is the demand?

We see great interest among such potential clients, and we are quite confident that in 2020 or 2021 at the latest we will see initial transactions being realized.

What are the challenges going to be for Sygnum as a company?

The biggest task for the board and for management will be to strike a good balance between growth and profitability. We took in 60 million Swiss francs in capital, but – with 60 people across Zurich and Singapore - we have a considerable burn rate now. We’ll have to prove to ourselves and to investors in the next 12 to 18 months that we’re capable of making money.

What are Sygnum’s projections for that?

As long as we haven’t had a single Swiss franc in revenue from clients, it wouldn’t be professional to share projections now.

Would you consider returning to banking or traditional finance?

Not really.

Why not?

Why would I reinvent the past? I’m curiosity-driven. I’m intrigued by leveraging experiences from my previous life in a new, innovative field and I love working with young, talented and entrepreneurial people.

How much have you personally invested in Sygnum?

I’m not answering that, but it’s not massive.

Peter Wuffli was CEO of UBS from 2001 until 2007, when he left abruptly as the Swiss bank's financial crisis losses widened. Wuffli relinquished more than $10 million of his pay one month after the wealth manager was bailed out by the Swiss government in 2008. He was a board member of Zug-based Partners Group for the last ten years. He met Mathias Imbach, who together with Manuel Krieger founded Sygnum last year, roughly ten years ago in connection with Elea Foundation. Wuffli and his wife, Susanne Wuffli, set up the foundation devoted to ethics in globalization in 2006. The market capitalization of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and ethereum is roughly $270 billion.