INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Clients hold the loans in digital tokens like Bitcoin only for seconds or minutes.
German Radoslav Albrecht has founded an online bank that allows clients to transfer loans anywhere in
Bitbond uses cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to bypass the Swift international transfer system to lend money across the globe rapidly and at
low cost."Traditional money transfers are relatively costly due to currency exchange fees, and can take up to a few days," Albrecht told
Reuters TV in his office in Berlin's fashionable neighbourhood Prenzlauer Berg
"With Bitbond, payments work independently of where customers are
Via internet it is very, very quick and the fees are low."Clients hold the loans in digital tokens like Bitcoin only for seconds or minutes
until they are exchanged back into the currency of the country where they wish to receive the funds, avoiding the crypto currencies
fluctuating exchange rates
Bitcoin has been used as collateral for loans, but never as a way of transferring credit in currency internationally.Albrecht's service
has been growing in popularity among clients since he launched the company in 2013
His office employs 24 people from 12 countries who manage loans for 100 clients amounting to around $1 million each month.Most clients are
small business owners or freelance workers, Albrecht says
Loans are relatively small and don't exceed 50,000 dollars
In 2016, Bitbond was officially licensed as a bank and has gained many investors since.Adoption of Bitcoin has been rapid in Germany
It trails only the United States , according to Bitnodes, which tracks the location of all the Bitcoin nodes that transmit data about new
