German DekaBank, one of the world’s largest asset managers, has teamed up with Swiss digital asset services provider Metaco to launch a tokenization platform. The bank is expected to launch its first minimum viable product (MVP) this year, Andreas Sack, digital asset custody executive at DekaBank, told Cointelegraph.
The news comes at a time when major local banks like DWS Group, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank, are moving into the crypto industry. According to some rankings, Germany became the world’s most crypto-friendly economy in 2022, based on factors including a favorable crypto outlook, clear crypto tax rules and transparent regulatory communications.
DekaBank, a leading provider of securities services and capital market solutions in Germany, has selected Switzerland-based Metaco to underpin its digital asset custody operations. The firm’s EUR360 billion in assets under management and extensive network of savings banks will benefit from a safe and compliant value proposition using Metaco’s Harmonize platform, underpinned by its fully configurable governance engine that will allow it to define its own policies in a scalable way.
Deka Bank’s decision to partner with Metaco comes at a time when regulated financial institutions are beginning to offer crypto exposure to their clients. This is a trend that has seen other major financial institutions such as Citibank and Societe Generale tap Metaco in recent months for similar services.
Founded in 2015, METACO is an institutional-grade infrastructure and digital asset management solutions company that offers an end-to-end product suite for custodians and exchanges to issue, store, trade and manage digital assets across the blockchain ecosystem. Its core platform, Harmonize, is an orchestration system that connects the entire digital asset lifecycle from custody and trading to tokenization, staking and smart contract management.
It is developed in partnership with Tier 1 banks and enables the commercial launch of complex banking value propositions around digital assets such as custody of cryptocurrencies and digital securities, underpinned by institutional-grade security and compliance standards. As such, it is an essential part of the growing crypto sector in Europe and beyond.
The German asset management giant DekaBank, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe – the largest savings bank in Germany – announced Tuesday that it would be using METACO to provide custody and capital market solutions. The move is a response to the ongoing crypto boom and DekaBank’s desire to offer its institutional clients access to digital assets, according to Andreas Sack, product owner of digital asset custody at the financial institution.
METACO’s custody and orchestration solution, Harmonize, was chosen by DekaBank in a rigorous selection process that included a proof-of-concept. It was deemed the most suitable platform for managing its digital asset custody operations due to its key management-agnostic capabilities, underpinned by its fully configurable governance system which allows it to define its own policies in a flexible and scalable manner.
DekaBank, the securities services provider of the German Savings Banks Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe), is partnering with Metaco to launch a tokenization platform. Although the 105-year-old bank does not plan to offer trading of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, it will use Metaco’s tokenization platform to issue bonds and stocks on a blockchain.
Aside from the monetary benefits, the partnership is expected to help DekaBank achieve compliance with the latest securities regulations. It will also help the company develop new digital asset custody solutions that meet the needs of its network of savings banks, DekaBank’s executive Andreas Sack told Cointelegraph.
As a global leader in the field of crypto security, DekaBank is able to offer its clients access to a wide variety of issuance and trading options. Moreover, it offers its clients a secure custody solution to store and manage their assets.
With the support of Metaco, DekaBank will create a unique tokenization platform, which can be used by its customers to offer a range of services and products that are not currently available on the market. The platform will allow DekaBank to monetize its existing asset management services, as well as new tokenized offerings such as digital gold.
This is one of the latest developments in a growing area for asset tokenization, which enables companies to distribute and transfer ownership of their assets on the blockchain. For example, last year the Zurich-based company Sygnum distributed the legal ownership rights of Picasso’s 1964 masterpiece Fillette au beret to investors through 4,000 tokens, at a price of 1,000 Swiss francs each.
Several major local banks are already in the crypto space, including DWS Group, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank — one of the world’s leading financial services providers. Earlier this month, DWS Group said it was interested in investing in two German crypto companies, including Deutsche Digital Assets and Tradias.
With the new partnership, DekaBank’s goal is to become a leader in the asset tokenization industry. Besides creating new tokenized investments, DekaBank will also provide a secure custody solution for its customers to store and trade their digital assets on the blockchain.
Metaco is a digital asset platform provider, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Switzerland. Its main product, called Harmonize, is an orchestration system that connects financial and non-financial institutions to the burgeoning digital asset economy. It combines cryptocurrency custody and trading with tokenization, staking and smart contract management.
The firm’s leadership team brings together a highly experienced group of software, security, finance and cryptography specialists with close links to the banking and academic sectors and the fast-growing DeFi entrepreneurial ecosystem. The team includes senior profiles from Accenture, Standard Chartered Bank, Santander Bank, JP Morgan, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
METACO’s platform, Harmonize, is an end-to-end orchestration system for digital asset use cases spanning crypto custody and trading to tokenization, staking and smart contract governance. It is designed to support any use case across the digital asset stack, and to be integrated into the infrastructure of firms of all sizes as their needs evolve over time.
A range of enterprise-ready product suites enables firms to rapidly deploy and integrate their digital assets into the business, with a flexible deployment option ranging from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to on-premise solutions. METACO Harmonize is trusted in live production with global custodians, exchanges and private and universal banks.
Its technology runs on IBM Cloud and leverages confidential computing capabilities. This enables the firm to deliver its traditional finance clients benefits including increased security and scalability as they adopt hybrid cloud strategies.
DekaBank will use the technology to manage the safe custody and oversight of its digital assets, in accordance with industry-leading regulatory requirements. Its solution will also include institutional-level storage for treasury administration and an easy-to-employ wallet system.
By using the solution, DekaBank will be able to meet its growing demand for capital market services. Moreover, the firm will be able to offer its investors a range of securities offerings in a native security token format on Tezos.
The partnership reflects the growing importance of blockchain technology in the finance sector. It will help DekaBank launch complex value propositions around cryptocurrencies and digital assets, underpinned by institutional-grade security and compliance standards.
DekaBank, a German financial institution that offers securities services for savings banks, has announced that it has selected Metaco to provide custody services to the bank’s clients. The partnership follows a rigorous selection process and proof-of-concept, with the custody and orchestration platform Harmonize from METACO chosen to underpin and orchestrate DekaBank’s digital asset operations.
The Switzerland-based METACO is a leading technology provider to regulated financial institutions in the digital asset environment with Tier 1 and 2 bank deployments globally. The firm provides digital asset infrastructure, software, and technologies to financial institutions and custodians that have a high level of security and compliance standards.
METACO’s SILO institutional operating system for digital assets enables financial institutions to securely integrate, store and manage cryptocurrencies and tokens. It combines physical and cyber security with an end-to-end secure framework for cryptocurrency custodial, transaction management and trading to create a robust, scalable, cost effective and compliant solution that is suited for large institutions.
Using NIAP-certified hardware, SILO secures crypto keys with both cyber and physical safeguards that ensure the highest level of privacy for client assets. In addition, it allows banks and financial institutions to deploy wallets for hot, warm, cold, nearline or frozen storage of digital assets in a manner that matches their requirements for security, flexibility and speed.
The company’s safe storage of cryptocurrencies can be deployed as a full-service or as a SaaS offering. The system consists of a multi-account wallet-management system that can be installed on-premises or as a cloud-based service.
For the protection of clients’ crypto assets, METACO uses ’Keep Your Own Key’ (KYOK) encryption from IBM and confidential computing capabilities to protect against malicious actors who might manipulate workflows or view private information. This is done via the IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Virtual Server enclaves, providing access to IBM’s confidential computing capabilities, without losing the benefit of cloud services.
Metaco’s platform, which was launched in 2018, allows financial institutions to launch complex banking value propositions around digital assets such as custody of cryptocurrencies and digital securities, underpinned by institutional-grade security and compliance standards. It has been adopted by a wide range of financial institutions, including some of the largest global custodians and exchanges.
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