Taking a considered approach
W ithin financial services, financial stability and regulatory compliance are always front of mind for buyers seeking solutions. While innovation, agility and relevance are key components, too, they count for nothing if a financial provider can’t breed trust through solid compliance. Managing Director BCB Europe, Jerome Prigent, knows this well. He spent time earlier on in his career in organisations of all sizes, from financial behemoths such as BNP Paribas and GE Capital to more agile fintechs that were finding their way. In 2025, this experience and knowledge acquired is about to become a very precious commodity indeed. For the unacquainted, BCB Group is a company with bold ambitions on the global payments stage. Styled as a “financial provider for the digital assets economy”, the business is roaring upwards, with the favourable winds of regulatory change in its sails. The company has already grown a trusted client base of crypto natives but is now starting to secure strong interest from banks, platforms, payment networks and fund groups as the broader capital markets ecosystem embraces the transformational potential of digital assets. But, while the company has been hard at work lining up a conveyor belt of deals and partnerships, Prigent has also been busy working to secure the highest possible regulatory blessings because he believes that will put daylight between BCB Group and its competitors. “When you have a tier one licence, like France, you just tick a button and you have all 30 European nations accepting your licence for the purpose of passporting,” he explains. “If you earn your licence from a European nation with a lower tier, there can be a delay to entering a new country within the European Economic Area.” Making the effort BCB Group already holds full CASP (Crypto Assets Service Provider) status with France’s regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). In doing so, the company has laid the groundwork for meeting the terms of the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation. This extensive effort to be regulated and registered in France seems light years away from the approaches of some of BCB Group’s competitors only a decade ago. “We had a period of rock and roll, with lots of innovation and diversity in the market,” Prigent recalls. “Nobody knew where we were going, but that’s not the case anymore.” “When you are choosing a regulatory domicile, you have a choice. You can go to countries such as Lithuania or Cyprus, where the process is easier but, after that, you might find you struggle to get the type of customers that you want.” Prigent says BCB knew that working to obtain a regulatory licence in France was going to be the more demanding option, due to scrutiny of compliance, provision of finance forecasts and the forensic detail with which assessors evaluate an application. Despite this, he believes that is the best approach for the business as the digital assets market starts to broaden.
“It’s all about trust,” he says. “If you do secure licenced status in France, you can be sure that it will help you attract new customers. In 2025, trust is the first word on my lips.” Regulatory clarity With the MiCA regulation bringing digital assets, their issuers, and the service providers that handle them, into one pan-EU regulatory framework, traditional financial institutions within the bloc have been tipped to accelerate their own willingness to make partnerships. After all, MiCA affords conservative compliance folk legal clarity and includes clear provisions for licensing digital asset service providers, which should help traditional firms looking to partner with specialists who offer digital asset services. Over the past five years, banks including BBVA, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS have all urged regulators to add “regulatory clarity” for them to be able to feel comfortable doing more in the digital assets arena. For BCB Group, which already partners with organisations to offer digital asset solutions across trading, payments, and custody, its own investment in regulatory endeavours, is part of a longer-term strategy. “To build something that is durable, you need to provide a lot of resource, time, effort and documentation,” Prigent says. “But once it is done, it is done for a long time and the benefits are huge. “It has become
essential for credible market participants to understand both traditional and decentralised finance. My job is to ensure we help our clients find the common ground so that both sides understand each other.” ◆
Jerome Prigent Managing Director BCB Europe
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