Investing.com -- Standard Chartered (LON: STAN ) has begun offering spot trading for bitcoin and ether through its U.K. branch, targeting institutional clients amid growing demand for cryptocurrency assets.

The bank announced Tuesday that it is the first global systemically important bank to provide secure, regulated, and scalable access to bitcoin and ether deliverable spot trading.

Institutional clients, including corporates, investors, and asset managers, can now trade digital assets using familiar foreign exchange interfaces.

Standard Chartered also plans to soon offer non-deliverable forwards trading, according to the bank’s statement.

Chief Executive Bill Winters said, "As client demand accelerates further, we want to offer clients a route to transact, trade and manage digital asset risk safely and efficiently within regulatory requirements."

The new service represents an expansion of Standard Chartered’s cryptocurrency offerings as financial institutions respond to increasing institutional interest in digital assets.