Mark Hipperson, the co-founder and former chief technology officer of Starling Bank Ltd., is set to launch a banking app that will allow customers to transfer funds between conventional money and five cryptocurrencies in January 2020, Financial News reported Dec. 23.
Hipperson is aiming for the app, which has an e-money license, to process $1 billion in transactions in 2020 and has plans to expand it into the U.S. market as early as the fourth quarter of 2020, the report said.
Despite not having a banking license, Ziglu will be able to offer its users the protection of the state-backed Financial Services Compensation Scheme that covers up to £85,000 in losses for customers in the event of a bank failing through a workaround, according to the report.
Hipperson told the newspaper that this was made possible by putting the money deposited by customers in personally nominated bank accounts with its U.K. and European banking partners so it could offer the scheme protection through them.