Deutsche Bank and digital assets

On the payments side, the bank's custody list includes three stablecoins: the dollar token USDC and the euro tokens EURC and EURAU. AllUnity, founded by DWS with Flow Traders and Galaxy, issues EURAU under an e-money license from BaFin. Deutsche Bank also runs payment services for the crypto broker Bitpanda: an expanded partnership gives Bitpanda real-time payments and German IBANs, after Deutsche Bank was already its house bank for cross-currency payments in Austria and Spain. Stablecoin settlement explains how such tokens settle between institutions.

Deutsche Bank's announcement names clients of its Corporate Bank and Investment Bank as the first target group. The bank will hold wallets and private keys, clients can transfer digital assets to third parties, and the service uses selected external technology and infrastructure providers for defined technical components; it remains subject to the regulatory process. The Block lists corporates, asset managers, hedge funds, custodians, brokers and sovereign institutions as initial clients and reports that Bitpanda and Taurus are involved. Private customers are not part of the announcement; banks offering crypto shows which banks sell crypto to retail customers.

Deutsche Bank earlier agreed a partnership with the Swiss firm Taurus for custody and tokenization services, The Block reported, and it applied to BaFin for a crypto custody license, as Cointelegraph reported. Crypto custody in Germany explains the license that German banks need for this business.

At Capital & Code in Frankfurt, where Finance Loop is media partner, Dr. Ming Schuhmacher of Deutsche Bank discusses use cases, custody and new payment rails for stablecoins with BitGo and Hercle. Deutsche Bank also spoke on payments in DLT-based markets at the Frankfurt Forum on Digital Assets and Applications, with Deutsche Bundesbank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank and AllUnity.

Deutsche Bank is launching custody for institutional and corporate clients in Europe, starting with Bitcoin, Ether, USDC, EURC and EURAU. The service is subject to the regulatory process.

The custody service targets clients of the Corporate Bank and Investment Bank. The announcement does not cover private customers.

EURAU is the euro stablecoin of AllUnity, which DWS, Deutsche Bank's asset manager, founded with Flow Traders and Galaxy. Deutsche Bank lists EURAU among the tokens of its custody service.