UBS Chief Executive Ralph Hamers told an audience at a student educational forum in Milan Tuesday (June 14) that transaction in digital euro could be “fast and cheaper,” Reuters reported.
“It would ensure that there is integrity and with that trust in the system that upholds the euro,” he told a student conference on financial education, according to the wire service. “It’s not risky if done well.”
UBS is among the world’s largest money managers.
Hamers also told attendees of the financial education conference that UBS is developing ways customers could use digital tools to buy real assets, but he thinks investors should steer clear of assets whose value depends solely upon algorithms.
“If you would go to any digital application of real assets, like money, we can help you and that is what we’re creating,” Hamer said, according to Reuters.
“You can buy crypto gold through UBS … in two minutes you have the gold on your app,” he added, “but we make sure we have the gold in our safe.”
As for UBS and true cryptocurrencies, Hamers reportedly said: “If you really want to go into the crypto world where it’s literally only determined through algorithms, that’s not where, at least for the moment, I see a role for us other than advising you not to do it.”
Hamers remarks came after a period that has at minimum been a tough slump for investors in cryptocurrencies and the industries that emerged around them, and in a more extreme scenario could be a period of significant reckoning.
Major cryptocurrencies continued their recent slump Tuesday (June 14) and some of the biggest companies in the secetor are shedding jobs.
See also: Super Bowl Curse Comes for Crypto as Layoffs Mount
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