Key Takeaways:
- Banque Delubac & Cie, is the first bank in France to be granted a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) licence.
- Banque Delubac & Cie will collaborate with Swiss crypto infrastructure provider Taurus to provide Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tezos trading and custody services.
At first wary of cryptocurrencies, an increasing number of large international banks have chosen to enter this market.
With the upsurge of crypto and the strong interest of individuals and, more recently, investors, major banks are attempting to establish themselves in this With the upsurge of cryptocurrencies and the strong interest of individuals and, more recently, investors, major banks are attempting to establish themselves in this space
Switzerland has long been regarded as Europe’s crypto capital, with its Zug canton dubbed ‘Crypto Valley’ home to over a thousand blockchain startups. International locations within the EU, on the other hand, are catching up. According to a recent report, Germany is at the top of the global crypto-friendliness rankings, owing largely to the roll-out of digital asset custody and buying and selling by German banks.
According to Taurus MiCa co-founder Lamine Brahimi, the DASP licence stems from a 2019 law in France – the PACTE law, or Business Growth and Transformation Action Plan – and should prepare banks well for the next phase of EU regulation.
That pattern appears to be spreading across the continent, as the French Banque Delubac & Cie, founded in 1924, has become the first to obtain the status of Digital Asset Service Provider (“DASP”), allowing funding in digital property, in collaboration with Swiss crypto infrastructure supplier Taurus. Big banks in France are still wary of cryptocurrencies. Everything remains on high alert if BNP Paribas or Societe Generale form a partnership with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. At the end of March, Banque Delubac & Cie became the first French bank to register with AMF as a Digital Asset Service Provider (PSAN). The bank announced that the offer would be available at the end of April, but it appears to be a little late.
In the press release of 14th April it was clearly mentioned that the offer will primarily target companies looking to invest a portion of their cash in crypto-assets, institutions looking to provide secure digital asset custody to their clients, and individuals looking to buy, sell, and hold crypto-assets. The Delubac & Cie bank’s service will allow you to invest in crypto-assets with the highest level of security possible.
Client assets will never be pooled; each client portfolio will correspond to a separate private key.
“We intend to make an offer soon.” It’s a highly adaptable and rapidly changing environment. We intend to launch some in order to expand our service over the next few months,” BFM Crypto Edodie explained. I’ll explain later. Trevillot works as the bank’s compliance officer.
The DASP licence is the result of a 2019 French law known as the PACTE law, which stands for Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation (“Plan d’Action pour la Croissance et la Transformation des Entreprises”), and it should adequately prepare banks for the next phase of EU regulation, the MiCa, Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi told Blockworks. The MiCA (“Markets in Crypto-assets”) Regulation, introduced in 2020 and slated for adoption in 2023, is the first EU-wide legislative initiative to establish a comprehensive framework for the issuance and provision of cryptoasset-related services. According to Brahimi, it was unknown whether or how fast traditional banks like Delubac & Cie would move to offer digital assets to their customer base.
Perhaps they will leave the space to unregulated entities — companies that do not have a banking licence. However, Brahimi is now optimistic that more incumbent banks will follow suit.
“You can assume that demand is now becoming more mainstream,” Brahimi said, adding that “it’s not just theory.”
As per a recent Bank of Spain report, approximately half of Europeans want decentralised exchanges, with France and Germany ranking as the top two crypto-friendly countries in Europe. However, a good chunk of the European public welcomes the investor protections that come with dealing with a controlled financial institution, according to Brahimi.
“If you are an expert in managing wallets and want to do it on your own and secure your private keys, that’s fine, but the vast majority of people out there simply don’t want to manage this complexity and want to buy cryptos or tokenized securities, or whatever, in the same way they buy stocks, and have it reported in their consolidated banking reporting.”
These hesitant traders may be interested in trading digital assets, but they would rather deal with their current day-to-day bank than open new accounts with crypto-focused firms.
If this is the case, infrastructure partners like Taurus — which collaborates with banks in Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, and Eastern Europe — expect to profit, as large institutions would rather buy or licence a product from a service provider than develop the in-house cryptography and specialised IT experience required for safe custody.
Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, applied for a licence with German regulatory agencies in late February to enable cryptocurrency exchange and storage services. If you obtain such a licence, you will be the first major German bank to venture into new territory. Twenty-five German banks will go to great lengths to obtain such information.
Goldman Sachs, the well-known American bank, became the first to offer a mortgage loan in Bitcoin on Thursday. The borrower can now use Bitcoin as collateral for a cash loan. It was also the first global bank to trade Bitcoin options over-the-counter at Galaxy Digital, a cryptocurrency asset management firm.
