The third-biggest bank in Germany based on asset size, DZ Bank, has introduced its own blockchain-based digital asset custody platform. The platform will engage with institutional clients, providing them with crypto assets like the Siemens crypto bond, to which DZ Bank subscribed six months ago, according to an announcement released on November 2.
DZ’s head of digital custody and securities services, Holger Meffert, stated the bank’s interest in distributed ledger technology (DLT):
It is anticipated that a substantial segment of capital market transactions will be handled using infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the next 10 years. We view distributed ledger technology (DLT) as an adjunct to the current capital market’s’ established infrastructure in the medium run.
In the future, the bank intends to provide institutional investors and individual clients with the option to purchase cryptocurrencies, “like Bitcoin.” In order to do that, DZ applied in June 2023 to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) for a crypto custody license.
German banks are adopting cryptocurrencies, according to a recent Cointelegraph article, despite the nation’s stringent industry regulations. More and more establishments are figuring out how to provide their patrons with access to cryptocurrency.
With the introduction of its wpNex cryptocurrency trading platform in March 2023, Deutsche WertpapierServiceBank made a significant advancement by providing 1,200 German banks and savings institutions with access to the digital asset market. The asset management company DWS, which is primarily under Deutsche Bank’s control, has stated that it is working on cryptocurrency exchange-traded products for the European market in addition to developing a variety of digital solutions that would enable investors to access blockchain applications and digital assets.
The German financial authority BaFin also requests cryptocurrency custody licenses from other conventional banks, such as Commerzbank and DekaBank.
