Ripple sets April deadline for securing Australian financial services license through strategic buy
According to Fiona Murray, Ripple's APAC managing director, institutional demand for digital assets in Australia is strong enough to justify the investment required to obtain an Australian Financial Services License.
The digital currency firm Ripple has announced plans to obtain a critical financial services license in Australia by acquiring a domestic payments company, continuing its global expansion of regulatory approvals that has accelerated throughout the past year.
According to a Tuesday announcement, Ripple intends to purchase BC Payments Australia, a corporate subsidiary connected to the European Banking Circle Group, which will grant the company access to an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL), a credential that will soon be mandatory for specific cryptocurrency businesses operating financial services within Australia's borders.
The deal to acquire BC Payments Australia is expected to finalize on April 1, based on reporting from The Australian, which referenced statements made by Fiona Murray, Ripple's managing director for the APAC region.
Murray indicated there was "enough institutional interest in digital assets to warrant the investment for us."
"Getting licensed was always part of our plan."
Within Ripple's official statement, Murray emphasized that "Australia is a key market for Ripple" and noted that obtaining an AFSL would enhance the organization's capacity to expand its payments operations across the nation.
"With the AFSL in place, Ripple Payments can manage the full lifecycle of a transaction, from onboarding and compliance through funding, FX, liquidity management, and final payout, while integrating both traditional banking rails and digital assets."
The company has been actively pursuing an expansion of its portfolio of international regulatory licenses throughout the past year.
Beyond recently obtaining conditional approval for a national trust banking charter in the US, Ripple has successfully acquired payment licenses in Singapore, the UAE and the UK during the last 12 months.
The company has simultaneously been pursuing opportunities to broaden the applications for XRP and its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin via strategic acquisitions completed in recent months, particularly the purchase of non-bank prime broker Hidden Road and corporate treasury platform GTreasury.
The Hidden Road acquisition — which has been rebranded as Ripple Prime — established Ripple as the first cryptocurrency-native enterprise to possess and operate a multi-asset prime brokerage service, encompassing clearing, financing and brokerage capabilities across digital assets, derivatives, swaps, foreign exchange, and fixed-income instruments for institutional clientele.
Ripple's strategic moves in Australia arrive as the nation's legislators brought forward the Digital Asset Framework bill last year, legislation that successfully passed through the lower house in February and is currently under consideration in the Senate.
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), which serves as the nation's primary markets regulator, has similarly put forward regulatory guidelines for the cryptocurrency industry.
ASIC has been actively encouraging crypto trading platforms to obtain AFSLs, announcing in October that enforcement actions related to licensing requirements would be postponed until at least June 30, 2026.
Digital currency exchange Coinbase has also expressed intentions to acquire an AFSL within the next several months.
Murray hopeful Australia will end crypto debanking
In her conversation with The Australian, Murray expressed optimism that the transition to AFSLs will bring an end to the pervasive crypto debanking problem in Australia, a situation where numerous banking institutions have implemented blocks or limitations on customers seeking to transfer funds to cryptocurrency exchanges.
The "Big Four" banks in Australia — Commonwealth Bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking, National Australia Bank and Westpac — have each implemented different degrees of restrictions on cryptocurrency exchange transactions.
During a conversation with Cointelegraph at the XRP Australia conference on Feb. 27, Kate Cooper, CEO of OKX Australia, stated that banking obstacles remain a persistent impediment to broader adoption within the country.
"It's absolutely still a challenge in the industry. I don't think there's been any improvements. And we're working hard with governments to encourage them to set some standards around it."