Shinhan Bank of South Korea is launching a bitcoin remittance service between Korea and China. The service is expected to be launched in December. Hong Kong will act as an intermediary (as digital currency transactions are legally permitted there). Shinhan Bank will transfer value to a digital currency exchange in Hong Kong, which will convert it into bitcoin and further the transaction to a Chinese exchange, where the value will be converted to local currency. This is a temporary solution as bitcoin is not considered a legal tender in South Korea at present. The country’s authorities are looking to introduce the legislation for cryptocurrencies in 2017. The platform is built by Shinhan Bank’s IT arm, Shinhan Data Systems, in partnership with local fintech start-up Streami, which specializes in blockchain remittance solutions. Shinhan Bank is also an investor in Streami.
