The German Savings Bank Association had recently disclosed its plans of launching a crypto wallet for people and shortly after, two German banks also announced that they were jumping on the crypto bandwagon. A German universal bank, Commerzbank and a brand of cooperative banks, Volks –und Raiffeisenbank, have both revealed plans of introducing crypto services for their clients. The plans of the Volks Bank were unveiled through a local newspaper, which said that the group was moving ahead with contemplating whether they should introduce crypto services. As a matter of fact, the bank was also working on figuring out what crypto services can be provided to customers.
It is certainly not the first move on the bank’s part when it comes to digital assets. Earlier, the bank had also disclosed that it had entered into a partnership with Fintech 360x and Deutsche Borse. The purpose of this partnership was to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) relating to real estate and art. A Commerzbank’s spokesperson stated that they were intensively focused on the subject of crypto assets and were working on the trading and safekeeping of these non-physical assets. The announcement by the two German banks followed a similar statement from German savings banks.
The latter plans on permitting its customers to invest in bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies. Collectively referred as Sparkasse, the savings banks are developing a pilot program for a crypto exchange and a wallet that will be launched in 2022. According to a local publication, this pilot program will be approved by the Sparkasse committees and then rolled out in early 2022. A spokesperson of the association said that an increasing number of consumers have shown an interest in crypto-assets. In fact, one in ten customers already own or have owned cryptocurrencies.
Therefore, this has prompted the Savings Banks Finance Group to take a closer look at crypto-assets in order to facilitate their clients. They will collaborate with German IT services provider S-Payment for launching the crypto wallet. The pilot phase will be launched by individual savings bank and then it will be up to the 370 banks in the association to decide independently if they wish to offer crypto services or not. Sparkasse is regarded as a market leader in Germany amongst the numerous financial institutions. Therefore, there is no doubt that the launch of a crypto wallet by the association would have a major impact on the extent of crypto adoption in the country.
Moreover, the announcement of the two banks after the announcement of Sparkasse regarding their respective crypto endeavors could also make these digital currencies more accessible to the German population. It could drive the vast majority towards the crypto space, especially when banks are joining it because this adds a layer of security, especially for people who have been unsure of cryptocurrencies until now. This is an indication of the increasing global adoption of the crypto market and a number of countries are currently working on developing laws for regulating crypto assets and the industry as a whole.