The second largest bank in Germany will offer crypto custody services to institutions

DZ Bank, the second largest German bank by assets, is ready to offer custody services for digital assets.

The BaFin-regulated financial institution and custody provider has joined forces with Swiss firm Metaco and orchestration platform Harmonize for its upcoming digital currency offering for its institutional clients.

• According to the official Press release, Harmonize is designed to offer a versatile governance framework and has customizable risk and compliance controls “with full segregation of multiple business units and clients, ensuring isolation of policies, users, accounts, and assets.”
• Commenting on the development, Nils Christopeit, DZ Bank’s Head of Digital Custody Solutions Design, said:

“In terms of our security, scalability and future requirements of our digital asset custody initiative for institutional clients, starting with crypto values ​​according to the German eWpG, Metaco Harmonize has proven to be a powerful solution that is fit for purpose and can support our expected operating model.

• Christopeit added that the platform was selected by DZ Bank through an extensive due diligence and proof of concept process and has proven to be a powerful solution for the lender.
• For the uninitiated, DZ Bank turns out to be one of the largest custodians in Germany, with 297 billion euros in assets under custody at the end of 2022.
• This is not the first time that Metaco collaborates with a prominent German player. In fact, the digital asset service provider associated with Frankfurt-based DekaBank to launch a blockchain-based tokenization platform last month.
• Citibank and Societe Generale are some of the other major financial institutions that have joined Metaco over the past year to provide institutional clients with access to digital asset offerings.

Featured image courtesy of GHA