Incoming CEO Dirk Klee sees Bitcoin Suisse partnering with banks and expanding outside of Switzerland, he tells finews.com in an exclusive interview.
Dirk Klee, you’re jumping from a career in traditional financial services to cryptocurrency. Why?
It’s been a theme in my CV from when I was running iShares in continental Europe. My passion is financial innovation. I had been looking at the crypto and blockchain developments for many years. Traditional banks are adopting a slow follower approach – maybe missing out on that opportunity.
What is the place of cryptocurrencies in traditional financial services?
I think it comes in many ways. Bitcoin is a new asset class which sits next to traditional ones. You could can argue it competes a little bit with storage of wealth, mostly directly with by gold. But the more interesting part is the its underlying technology and others the use cases it enables.
«We can disintermediate traditional players»
The distribution of trust allows for the disintermediation of traditional players. There are so many things to explore – some concrete, some not. Bitcoin Suisse is uniquely positioned to do that and bring value to customers.
What would you like to change in terms of Bitcoin Suisse’s positioning or strategy?
It is about continuing the successful track record of Bitcoin Suisse and capitalizing on the potential of the firm. Clearly, my ambition is to take the company to the next phase.
Can you be more specific?
I think there are two themes that stand out: institutionalization, making Bitcoin Suisse a leading institutional player working with other financial companies. The other is internationalization: can Bitcoin Suisse expand beyond Switzerland. These are the
priorities of the strategy laid out by the board, which we will develop further and implement in the coming years.
How do you see the digital asset industry moving closer to traditional banking?
It's apparent that both worlds are coming together, but in some ways they’re also competing. Even though as traditional institutions have taken a slower approach to warm to crypto assets, they are catching up fast. This opens more and more ways of working together. That’s an opportunity for the asset class as a whole. We’re partially competing and partially running parallel.
How optimistic are you that the banking world becoming a little bit faster in its adoption of digital assets?
They have a lot of legacy risk issues to work through. My understanding is that the banks are hesitant to enter another risk area too soon. They will eventually come in, but they will take time to review it thoroughly first.
«Customers are asking their banks for crypto»
On the other hand, they are telling me that their customers have a strong demand for crypto-financial services. They see the outflows and the gap in demand that is currently not supported by their own offering. I’m convinced that in the coming years, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity awaits Bitcoin Suisse.
Dirk Klee is the designated CEO of Bitcoin Suisse. The German native spent the last four years at Barclays, where he oversees wealth and investment in the U.K. Previously, he was operating chief at UBS' flagship wealth management unit, where he spearheaded a $1 billion technology platform as well as a robo advisor. From 2008 until joining the Swiss bank in 2013, Klee oversaw Blackrock's iShares business in continental Europe, before which he worked as Pimco's head of business development in Germany and Austria. He has a Masters and a PhD in law.
