Germany’s financial regulatory body, BaFin, received more than 40 “expression of interest” from banks in the country that would like to offer cryptocurrency services in the future, according to the Handelsblatt report. The new law came into effect at the beginning of this year.
New German law allows banks to offer crypto services.
The new German Money Laundering Act that went into effect earlier this year allows banks to offer their customers cryptocurrencies services along with traditional investment products, such as stocks and bonds. But financial institutions would need to obtain a license from the financial regulatory body of the country, BaFin.
Expressions of interest are not applications for permission.
A spokesperson from the BaFin explained that expression of interest shown by the financial institutions is not applications for permissions. The financial regulatory body of Germany had earlier asked companies that were providing crypto services to submit an informal, non-binding expression of interest. BaFin further noted that the financial institutions would not receive an immediate acknowledgment of receipt or an assessment of the information submitted on their expression of interest.
One of the banks that aims to obtain the regulatory license from BaFin is Solarisbank. The head of crypto banking at Solarisbank said that they have been dealing intensively with the topic of crypto custody for one and a half years, and now they aim to offer crypto services.
