Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) – Germany's largest federal bank – will start offering a digital asset custody service for its clients this year. For this purpose, it established cooperation with the Bitpanda cryptocurrency exchange.
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg will store your bitcoins
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW, State Bank of Baden-Württemberg) is a German bank operating under its own brand and through three subsidiary regional banks: Baden-Württembergische Bank (Baden-Württemberg), Sachsen-Bank (Saxony) and Rheinland-Pfalz Bank (Rhineland). -Palatinate). It was established on January 1, 1999 by the merger of Südwestdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and Landesgirokasse Stuttgart.
Now the bank is taking an important step in the adoption of cryptocurrencies in Germany.
Let's start with the fact that the problem of many novice investors is how to store bitcoins and altcoins safely. Not everyone can generate their own paper wallet. Not to mention understanding the idea itself. Unfortunately, for many people, the idea that they have to take care of the security of their assets themselves is too much of an obstacle. Hence the idea to let the banks take care of it.
LBBW wants to respond to this need. In the second half of 2024, it will start offering cryptocurrency storage to its customers.
According to the official announcement, LBBW will leverage Bitpanda Technology Solution's advanced Investment-as-a-Service (IaaS) infrastructure. All for the purpose of providing cryptocurrency storage services.
Bitpanda confirmed that for now it is a pilot program under which the leading cryptocurrencies: bitcoin and ether will be secured. However, this will be an introduction to the development of the project.
Jürgen Harengel, COO of Corporate Bank at LBBW, said:
Our corporate clients' demand for digital assets is growing. We are convinced that cryptocurrency assets will become the basis for further business models. Thanks to this cooperation, we create a technical and regulatory base at an early stage to best support the individual strategies of our corporate clients.
German banks open to cryptocurrencies
German banks and asset managers are gradually becoming more involved in the development of the market, providing custody services and creating their own products from this asset class. Everything is happening in anticipation of upcoming European Union regulations.
For example, Deutsche Bank is developing its own service for storing digital assets. In turn, in February last year, DZ Bank, which is the second largest German bank in terms of assets under management, announced a plan to offer a service for storing digital assets in cooperation with the Swiss company Metaco and the Harmonize platform.
