First Investment Bank (Fibank) will let its customers buy cryptocurrencies, or digital assets, through its My Fibank platform, Austrian fintech firm Bitpanda said on its website. The service is expected to start in early 2027.
The bank will work with Bitpanda Enterprise, the institutional arm of Vienna-based Bitpanda. Bitpanda says Fibank will be the first bank in Bulgaria to offer crypto in its own app, and that more than one million of the bank's customers will get access.
Bitpanda itself will provide all crypto-related services. Bitpanda Enterprise's technology will add digital assets to the banking services My Fibank already offers. The unit supplies banks, fintech firms, brokers and corporate clients with technology for investment, liquidity, asset storage, payments, stablecoins and tokenisation.
Nadim Ladki, global head of Bitpanda Enterprise, said customers will invest in crypto through a banking platform they already know. "Digital assets are becoming part of traditional finance, and banks are taking a central role in this shift," he added.
Fibank chief executive Nikola Bakalov said the partnership is a natural next step as My Fibank grows into a platform with a wider range of financial products. "It is especially important for us that this new option is being delivered together with an established European technology partner and in line with the applicable European rules," Bakalov said.