Banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are reportedly looking to upgrade their banking technologies, thanks to pressure from retail client competition and the emergence of digital currencies like bitcoin.

And while these very banks haven’t said anything specific about what their plans are, one bank official is seemingly optimistic on the topic of digital currency, but says that it could be a while for these alternative payment methods to improve upon today’s methods of banking.

“Trust is very important when it comes to money,” said Kaizar Patla to The National. Patla serves as Head of Consumer Assets at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

“The traditional mode of payment by card offers works and is reliable and safer. There are also many systems around it to protect the consumer. Therefore, while banks can learn a lot from new digital currencies, it might take some time for new digital currencies to become viable solutions on their own.”

That doesn’t mean they never will.

In the past year alone, bitcoin and other digital currencies have gained enormous traction.

The fact of the matter is that large companies — even banks — are looking at bitcoin as its growth continues. With the increasing amount of attention it’s getting, more are discovering that this could very well be the system that changes how consumers manage their money.

Another example of a financial company looking into bitcoin includes PayPal. Just this morning, we learned from eBay CEO John Donahoe (eBay owns PayPal, for your reference) that PayPal is closely looking at some level of integration with bitcoin.

Could the next chapter of bitcoin’s story be starting?

[textmarker color=”C24000″]Image[/textmarker] Bernardo Löwenstein