DZ Bank, Germany’s second largest bank, is preparing to become a provider of custody services for crypto assets. This offering will be facilitated by a partnership with Metaco, a Swiss company specializing in operational support in the area of digital assets for financial institutions.
DZ Bank launches crypto custody service using Metaco’s Harmonize platform
DZ Bank, part of Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken, one of Germany’s largest banking groups, will adopt a platform built by Metaco to serve institutional customers in the area of digital currencies and crypto securities, the fintech The company also announced that.
Regulated by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin), DZ Bank is an established custodian and the second largest bank in Germany by assets, with €297 billion ($315 billion) worth of assets under custody at the end of 2022.
Founded in Switzerland in 2015, Metaco focuses on enabling financial and non-financial institutions to conduct crypto operations. Its infrastructure allows such players to store and trade cryptocurrencies, tokenize other assets, provide 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 the new service into its current asset management services. Metaco’s digital asset technology infrastructure is specifically designed to help financial institutions leverage the digital asset economy,” commented Craig Perrin, Metaco’s Chief Sales Officer.
The German bank, which values regulatory compliance and security, selected it through an extensive proof-of-concept and diligence process, the press release stated. Nils Christopeit, Lead Solution Design and Digital Custodian at DZ BANK, elaborated as follows.
Metaco Harmonize has proven to be a powerful solution in terms of security, scalability, and future requirements of institutional digital asset custody initiatives, starting with crypto securities according to the German eWpG.
Christopate refers to the Electronic Securities Act(Gesetz zur Einführung elektronischer Wertpapiere, abbreviated as eWpG in German), a law adopted in 2021to update the country’s securities law and related 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.
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