BNP Paribas in France, which is Europe’s second largest bank, has entered the crypto custody market.
BNP Paribas, which is based in Switzerland, announced Tuesday that it has joined forces with Metaco (a crypto infrastructure firm based in Switzerland) to provide digital assets custody services for its customers. Three people familiar were the first to know about the development.
This deal is significant because BNP Paribas Securities Services is the custodian bank subsidiary. With over $12 trillion in custody, it is the one that is geared up to offer institutional-grade custody for digital assets.
Enhancing institutional digital assets capabilities
Metaco has entered into partnership agreements with banks in recent months to develop digital asset custody systems.
Last month, French bank Societe Generale chose Metaco as its Swiss cryptocurrency custody provider to support its digital assets custody operations. Metaco was tapped to offer digital asset custody for customers in the bank’s digital asset subsidiary, SG FORGE, which will majorly focus on security tokens.
Societe Generale provides capital market products to institutional customers under a native security-token format on Tezos. Ethereum Complete banking safety and regulatory compliance.
The partnership enabled SG FORGE’s continued integration of security tokens into traditional financial services and leveraging Metaco’s bank-grade digital asset custody & orchestration platform Harmonize to further expand its offering.
Last month, Citi, a US multinational bank, selected Metaco, a Swiss tech company, to pilot digital asset custody capabilities.
The partnership brought together Metaco’s tech and digital solutions with Citi’s custody network to develop a platform that will enable Citi clients to store and settle digital assets securely.
Citi plans to fully integrate Metaco’s bank-grade digital asset custody and orchestration platform, Harmonize, into its existing infrastructure.
Metaco’s service to Citi and Societe Generale aims to connect digital and traditional assets.
With Metaco’s service, SocGen and Citi are leveraging their infrastructure to support their vision of bridging traditional and digital finance, focused on security tokens, like tokenized versions of stocks or other financial instruments, with less of an emphasis on pure cryptocurrencies.
In the past, the likes of Spanish major bank BBVA, London-based Zodia Custody, Singapore multinational bank DBS, and UnionBank Philippines also partnered with Metaco to enable digital assets custody services to their clients.
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