NEW YORK & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Q2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:QTWO), a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for banking and lending, and NYDIG, a leading bitcoin company, today announced Five Star Bank (NY) and UNIFY Financial Credit Union as the first financial institutions in the U.S. to enable their banking clients and members to buy, sell and hold bitcoin, powered by NYDIG. With the integration of NYDIG into the Q2 Digital Banking Platform, leveraging Q2’s Innovation Studio, banks and credit unions can now provide bitcoin services to their customers and members, while helping to overcome barriers such as wallets and key management.
NYDIG’s full-stack Bitcoin platform is built to the highest security, regulatory, and operational standards to help traditional banks and credit unions enable their account holders to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin and to view their current bitcoin balance alongside their traditional banking accounts. By leveraging NYDIG’s Bitcoin platform, Q2’s financial institution clients will be able to provide their account holders with integrated bitcoin services and further drive end-user acquisition, retention, and engagement, while increasing fee revenue opportunities.
“This is a game changer for financial institutions in the U.S.,” said Jonathan Price, Q2’s executive vice president, Emerging Businesses, Corporate & Business Development. “Built on the Q2 Innovation Studio, this new Q2-NYDIG offering gives financial institutions the choice to offer Bitcoin to their end users, while taking into account the regulatory and security requirements needed to enable banks and credit unions to securely step into the bitcoin arena and meet growing consumer demand.”
“The market momentum is building around bitcoin, and by rapidly expanding our network, we are laser-focused on helping banks and credit unions take advantage of this opportunity,” said Patrick Sells, NYDIG’s chief innovation officer. “We know that the opportunity for financial institutions is real, and that is why we’re so excited to have our first financial institution customers live on the Q2 Digital Banking Platform. Working together with the Q2 team and their technology has been exhilarating – we went from concept to the first production transaction in less than 120 days. Our partnership with Q2 is simply groundbreaking for Bitcoin + Banking, and together we will work towards creating a more prosperous financial future for consumers.”
According to NYDIG’s research, more than 20 percent of American adults own bitcoin and more than 80 percent of them would store it with their primary bank or credit union, if the service was offered. Additionally, more than 71 percent of bitcoin holders say they would switch to a bank or credit union that supports Bitcoin.
“At Five Star Bank, we believe we have a fundamental responsibility to adapt quickly to meet the needs of our customers, associates and the communities we serve,” said Martin K. Birmingham, CEO of Five Star Bank. “Today’s announcement is a testament of our commitment to evolve and respond quickly to market changes.”
“With market and consumer trends evolving, increasing numbers of consumers are seeking easy, secure access to Bitcoin from sources they trust. We are excited to be among the first banks to deliver secure and seamless bitcoin services to our customers and are so appreciative of our strong partnership with Q2 and our new relationship with NYDIG, who together have enabled us to achieve this important milestone,” said Sean Willett, chief administrative officer, Five Star Bank.
“This is an exciting partnership with Q2 and NYDIG and a huge opportunity for UNIFY and our members. We are thrilled to be the first credit union on the Q2 platform to enable members to trade Bitcoin,” said Greg Glawson, EVP, chief information officer, UNIFY Financial Credit Union. “By offering a streamlined and simple process to begin trading in this new asset class, we are continuing to meet our member needs, especially as many have awareness about the convenience and benefit cryptocurrency may provide. Having a trusted provider in their credit union will hopefully add to their confidence as they engage in this new opportunity. By offering the ability to trade in Bitcoin, UNIFY brings substantial new product value to our members that can help differentiate us from other financial institutions.”
The collaboration extends NYDIG’s secure, regulated Bitcoin platform to Q2’s extensive customer base with more than 18 million end users. Using the Q2 Innovation Studio and Q2’s modern, best-in-breed open-architecture Digital Banking Platform, traditional financial institutions now have the ability to seamlessly add Bitcoin services to their existing capabilities on the Q2 Digital Banking Platform.
About NYDIG
NYDIG is a bitcoin company providing technology and financial services solutions to banks, insurers, corporations, and institutions. The firm and its products meet the industry’s highest regulatory, audit, and governance standards. Learn more at nydig.com, or connect on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Q2 Holdings, Inc.
Q2 is a financial experience company dedicated to providing digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance, and fintech companies in the U.S. and internationally. With comprehensive end-to-end solution sets, Q2 enables its partners to provide cohesive, secure, data-driven experiences to every account holder – from consumer to small business and corporate. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 has offices worldwide and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the stock symbol QTWO. To learn more, please visit Q2.com.
NYDIG, NY\DIG, and NEW YORK DIGITAL INVESTMENT GROUP are registered trademarks of New York Digital Investment Group LLC. All rights reserved.
