Germany’s DZ Bank to offer crypto custody with Swiss firm Metaco – Finance Bitcoin News

The second largest bank in Germany, DZ Bank, is preparing to become a crypto-asset custody service provider. The offering will be facilitated by a partnership with Metaco, a Swiss company that specializes in helping financial institutions operate in the digital asset space.

DZ Bank will use Metaco’s Harmonize Platform to launch Crypto Custody Services

DZ Bank, part of the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken which is one of the largest banking groups in Germany, will use a platform built by Metaco to offer institutional clients services in digital currencies and crypto-securities, the fintech announced.

Regulated by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin), DZ Bank is an established custodian bank and Germany’s second largest bank by asset size. By the end of 2022, it had 297 billion euros (almost $315 billion) in assets under custody.

Metaco, founded in Switzerland in 2015, is focused on enabling financial and non-financial institutions to conduct crypto operations. The infrastructure allows such players to store and trade cryptocurrencies, tokenize other assets, offer staking services and manage smart contracts.

Under the collaboration, DZ Bank intends to use Metaco’s core product, a digital asset orchestration platform called Harmonize, to integrate its new offering into its current asset management services. “Metaco’s digital asset technology infrastructure is purposefully designed to support financial institutions in capitalizing on the digital asset economy,” commented Craig Perrin, chief sales officer at Metaco.

The German bank, which emphasizes regulatory compliance and security, selected it through an extensive proof-of-concept and due diligence process, the press release noted. Nils Christopeit, leading solution design digital depository at DZ BANK, elaborated:

Regarding our security, scalability and future requirements for our digital asset custody initiative for institutional clients, starting with crypto-securities according to the German eWpG, Metaco Harmonize has proven to be a powerful solution.

Christopeit referred to the Electronic Securities Act (Gesetz zur Einführung elektronischer Wertpapiere, abbreviated eWpG in German), which was enacted in 2021 to update the country’s securities legislation and the relevant supervisory framework. The law, which came into effect on June 10 of the same year, is a key element of the blockchain strategy approved by the federal government in Berlin.

Do you think other major German banks will take advantage of the opportunity to offer services related to digital assets? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’ quote: “To be a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.