DekaBank, one of Germany’s largest and oldest banks has partnered with Metaco, a Swiss-based crypto company to offer crypto custody and management services to its institutional clients. It is the Harmonize platform developed by Metaco that will be used by DekaBank. This collaboration reveals the growing interest of banks in crypto in Germany and other countries.
DekaBank partners with Metaco to offer crypto services
A few years ago, banks were very skeptical of digital assets. Today, some banking institutions are falling under the spell of cryptocurrencies. This is notably the case of the German bank Dekabank, which will now offer crypto custody and management services for its institutional clients.
To better implement its cryptocurrency-related services, DekaBank has partnered with crypto company Metaco. Based in Switzerland, Metaco is known for developing Harmonize, a digital asset custody and management platform for financial institutions. Notably, it is the Harmonize platform that DekaBank will use to offer crypto services to its customers.
DekaBank and Metaco are leading financial services providers. Indeed, DekaBank has been operating for over a century. Moreover, it manages nearly $434 billion in assets and has about 5.2 million customers. For its part, Metaco is a technology company well known for offering crypto custody and management services to financial institutions. Its services are compliant with Tier 1 and Tier 2 banking standards in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North America.
Given the status of both companies, it’s clear that their partnership is likely to succeed. Additionally, what makes DekaBank more optimistic about the Metaco partnership is the cryptocurrency itself. Indeed, Andreas Sack, Product Owner Digital Assets Custody at DekaBank believes that cryptocurrencies are the future of finance. His company will therefore be able to help its customers access this opportunity in a secure and compliant manner.
Digital assets are a key part of the future, a radical new way of representing assets from currencies to real estate. Today we are taking another important step to give our institutional investors and millions of people in Germany access to this transformative opportunity.
Andreas Sack, Product Owner Digital Assets Custody at DekaBank
Banks are no longer indifferent to crypto
As the years go by and the crypto market consolidates, more and more banking institutions are becoming interested in digital assets. This is visible in Germany as well as in other countries around the world.
Only a few days before DekaBank, it was its competitor the neo-bank N26 that launched into crypto. Unlike DekaBank, n26 did not partner with a crypto company. The bank has simply integrated crypto into its app. N26’s crypto services are available in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland and Portugal.
German banks are not the only ones interested in crypto. In Brazil, for example, Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco had announced a crypto custody service for the second quarter of 2023. This bank was no doubt encouraged by the adoption of crypto in Brazil by both private and institutional clients.
After years of denigration following doubt, crypto is gaining more and more trust in the opinion. Interestingly, banks, virulent detractors of crypto, are no exception to the rule.
I dream of a world where every citizen has total control over themselves, including their finances. I believe that Bitcoin is one of the tools that will achieve this revolution. Since 2019, I am learning about this cryptocurrency and spreading the word around.
