A recent Bloomberg piece says that German banking behemoth Deutsche Bank seeks a license to offer its customers a crypto custody service.
Deutsche Bank has applied to Bafin (German Federal Financial Administration) for a regulatory license to provide custody services for digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. Deutsche Bank is Germany's largest banking institution with total assets of EUR 1.337 trillion in Q4…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 20, 2023
According to the head of the bank's commercial banking unit, David Lynne, the company has just submitted an application file into the Bafin (the German securities regulator), waiting now to get official regulatory permission to deal with cryptocurrencies.
This step has been taken as part of the bank's currently chosen strategy to raise fee income at the company's corporate bank, per Lynne. Besides, Deutsche Bank's investment company DWS Group is now seeking to raise its profits from crypto-related services, so Deutsche Bank's commercial bank intends to do the same.
Plans to enter the crypto space and offer crypto custody services to customers were first voiced back in 2020. However, no specific dates were named as to when this would be conducted.
Vladislav Sopov