Fidor Bank partners with bitcoin-payment processor BIPS

Online financial-services provider Fidor Bank announced a new partnership with European bitcoin payment processor BIPS, further increasing it’s “peer-to-peer banking” network. Earlier this month, Fidor announced it would be integrating the decentralized, “currency agnostic” trustless exchange system developed by Ripple Labs, but the BIPS partnership is the first true cryptocurrency connection for the Germany-based bank.

Quoted in the press release about the partnership, BIPS CEO Hans Henrik H. Heming said that the initiative will enable his company’s customers to have greater access to Europe’s SEPA banking network. “Fidor Bank and BIPS both share the same forward looking view on financial services and merchant acquiring, and Fidor is therefore a natural choice for BIPS when it comes to bringing down transaction costs and increase efficiency for merchants. … Being able to offer reduced bank transfer fees is not only good news for our own business, but for every merchant that uses our payment gateway.”

Heming also said that the Fidor Bank partnership was one part of a “global roll-out” and that more banking partnerships are planned for other regions.

It’s not known if the recent internal conflicts at Ripple Labs will impact Fidor Bank’s plans to incorporate additional crytocurrency-based systems.