CACEIS, the asset servicing unit that’s owned by Credit Agricole (ACA.PA) and Santander (NYSE: SAN), has reportedly registered with France’s markets regulator AMF in order to offer digital asset custody services (including cryptocurrencies).
The firm has registered as a digital asset service provider (DASP) on June 20, 2023. This, according AMF’s official website. The company has now added a major traditional financial services group to the inreasing number of crypto firms registered by the French regulator.
France has generally been supportive of the volatile sector and was one of the first major European nations to grant registration to the world’s largest digital currency exchange, Binance.
Subsidiaries of other major players in French finance, including Societe Generale and AXA, are also reportedly listed among the DASPs that have now registered with AMF.
As reported by Reuters, CACEIS had 4.1T Euros (appr. $4.51 trillion) in total assets under custody at end of 2022, according to its official website. Credit Agricole SA is notably its majority owner with nearly a 70% stake, meanwhile, Santander maintains a 30.5% of the group.
In other recent news involving crypto custody services, it was reported that Deutsche Bank AG (ETR: DBK) has submitted an application for obtaining regulatory clearance to serve as a digital asset custodian, based in Germany, the bank revealed on Tuesday (June 20, 2023).
As first reported by Bloomberg, this latest development from Deutsche Bank comes only a few days following asset management firm BlackRock‘s announcement that it had filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
Deutsche Bank stated back in February 2021 that it would be considering offering digital asset custody services in order to provide “institutional-grade” hot and cold storage services with “insurance-grade” protection.
The crypto-asset custody service, which Deutsche Bank stated back in early 2021 could be rolled out in phases, may eventually enable clients to purchase and sell virtual currencies via prime brokers and also offer services like taxation, valuation assessments, and even fund administration, lending, staking and voting.