Bitpanda and RBI Plan Crypto Access for 18 Million Bank Customers in CEE
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Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and Bitpanda are expanding their partnership. As the two companies have just announced, they are setting up a common framework that will allow RBI’s network banks in Central and Eastern Europe to offer their customers access to digital assets. The technical infrastructure comes from Bitpanda Enterprise, the B2B arm of the Vienna-based crypto broker. According to the partners, RBI’s regional network serves around 18 million customers.
The companies did not name a launch date or the first countries to go live. The rollout is set to happen step by step, with each network bank deciding on its own offering and timing, depending on local regulatory requirements and market conditions.
The Blueprint: Raiffeisen in Vienna and Lower Austria
The foundation for the partnership was laid in Austria. Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) announced several years ago that it would enter crypto and ETF trading together with Bitpanda. In early 2024, the integration into its banking app Mein ELBA went live. Customers can buy and sell cryptocurrencies there without opening a separate account on a crypto platform. Bitpanda provides the infrastructure in the background, while the customer relationship stays with the bank.
According to the bank, RLB NÖ-Wien thus became the first traditional bank in the EU to give customers crypto access directly within their existing banking environment. At the time, Trending Topics took a detailed look at which features the offering included at launch and where its limits were. Other institutions in the Raiffeisen sector followed, including Raiffeisen-Landesbank Tirol.
From Single Projects to a Group-Wide Framework
What is new about the current agreement is the level at which it operates. Until now, the collaborations were integrations at individual banks. The plan is to create a unified framework within the RBI Group that subsidiary banks across the various CEE markets can draw on. The partners say this could become one of the broadest group-wide crypto rollouts by a traditional European banking group to date.
For Bitpanda, business with banks and financial service providers is a key growth area. Through Bitpanda Enterprise, the company supplies trading, custody and the necessary regulatory infrastructure to partners that want to offer digital assets under their own brand. Besides Raiffeisen banks, Bitpanda works with the neobank N26, among others, and has also signed bank partnerships in Germany.
Crypto Through Your Own Bank
The partnership reflects a trend that has been emerging in Europe for some time: digital assets are moving from specialized trading platforms into the product range of traditional banks. With the EU’s MiCA regulation, a uniform legal framework is now in place that makes it easier for banks to enter the market. Working with an infrastructure provider allows institutions to offer crypto products without building the technology themselves. Customers, in turn, need no additional app and no extra account.
The two companies also emphasize the European character of the project, as both the banking network and the crypto infrastructure come from Austria. How strong demand will be in the individual CEE markets, and how quickly the network banks will actually introduce the offering, remains to be seen. The experience in Vienna and Lower Austria is likely to serve as a reference point.
