Lawyer, Family Office
BCB Group is a London-based group doing for the crypto industry what mainstream banks refused to do: operational fiat accounts, payment rails and settlement for exchanges, funds and market makers. It was founded in 2017 by Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie and Oliver Tonkin; Tonkin is CEO today. In January 2020 BCB Payments Limited became the first crypto-focused company to receive Authorised neobank status from the FCA.
The product logic is simple: a crypto business needs fiat — to take client money, pay salaries, settle with counterparties. Banks fear such clients; BCB specialises in them.
Who They Are and the Licence
- UK: BCB Payments Ltd — an Authorised neobank supervised by the FCA.
- France — the group's EU hub: ACPR authorisation as an E-Money Institution and a DASP registration with the AMF; per public sources, a full MiCA CASP application has been filed.
- Switzerland: per public sources, the group maintains a Swiss regulated perimeter for digital asset services.
- The perimeter is strictly institutional: no retail clients, no personal accounts.
Products and Rails
- Operational accounts for crypto companies: GBP, EUR, CHF and other currencies; access to SEPA, UK Faster Payments and SWIFT.
- BLINC — a proprietary 24/7/365 instant settlement network: transfers between members are free and instant, nights and weekends included; supported currencies — USD, GBP, EUR, CHF, SGD, JPY, AUD, NZD. The directory spans exchanges, market makers, lenders, funds and brokers.
- FX and crypto liquidity: OTC trading, fiat on/off-ramp.
- Digital asset custody.
- Yield: BCB Yield on fiat and crypto balances; since February 2026 — Stablecoin Earn, institutional returns on USDC, USDT and EURC built on money-market / RWA instruments.
Who It Suits
Crypto exchanges (per public sources, clients over the years have included Bitstamp, Kraken, Gemini and Crypto.com), market makers and OTC desks, funds and asset managers, brokers, payment firms with crypto flows, and infrastructure players like Fireblocks and Galaxy. BLINC's value is network-driven: the more counterparties inside, the less reason to push settlement through SWIFT.
Onboarding and Compliance
Institutional KYB: the client's licences and registrations (VASP/CASP/MSB), AML policies, source of funds, token provenance and the business model. BCB knows the industry from the inside, so the dialogue is easier for a regulated crypto business than with a mainstream bank — but the documentation pack is no lighter. Timelines from several weeks; terms individual.
Risks and Limitations
- Not a bank: API/neobank statuses, safeguarding instead of deposit protection.
- Single-industry concentration: a crypto-market stress hits the whole client base — the group went through the 2022–2023 cycle with management reshuffles.
- USD rails are the traditional weak spot of crypto providers: the dollar exists in BLINC, but the group has no full US perimeter — verify current availability.
- A private client without a legal entity and regulatory status has nothing to do here.
Q/A
Is BCB Group a bank?
No. It is a group of neobanks: an Authorised neobank in the UK and an neobank in France. No banking licence, no FSCS — safeguarding applies.
What is BLINC?
BCB's proprietary instant settlement network: members transfer USD, GBP, EUR, CHF, SGD, JPY, AUD and NZD to each other instantly and free of charge, 24/7/365. Effectively the crypto industry's internal clearing layer.
Will they take a company without a crypto licence?
The focus is regulated institutional clients. VASP/CASP/MSB status radically simplifies onboarding; unregulated businesses are reviewed case by case and far more strictly.
How does BCB differ from Clear Junction?
Both are FCA-regulated non-banks. Clear Junction is a broad correspondent provider for neobanks and neobanks where crypto is one of several verticals. BCB is a specialised crypto hub: BLINC, OTC liquidity, custody and stablecoin yield.
Related: BaaS and neobank in Europe, Neobanks, Clear Junction, ClearBank
📎 We maintain a comparison file of payment infrastructure providers — licences, rails, pricing and onboarding across Clear Junction, ClearBank, BCB Group and peers. Request the current version via the form at wiki.private.law.