Sparkassen proposes a plan to allow cryptocurrency trading

In a report by German-based business magazine Capital last December 13, savings banks in German-speaking nations also known as Sparkassen are planning to release a pilot project to allow customers to trade big cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Through this plan, people can buy digital assets through their checking accounts. However, this is still subject to approval by the committee members at the start of 2022.

A spokesperson from the German Savings Banks Association confirmed the planned project as reported by crypto news site Cointelegraph last December 14. They pointed out one of the reasons behind this proposal was because ‘more and more consumers are interested in crypto-assets. One in ten customers of the German Savings Banks states he/she owns or has owned crypto-assets. Considering their expectations, the Savings Banks Finance Group has to look into crypto-assets too’.

According to the same person, they are working with a group of experts from the German IT service provider S-Payment for a safe way to store the cryptocurrencies of their customers. However, there are still no confirmed announcements regarding this.

If the previously mentioned project gets a go signal, the first version of their digital wallet could be launched before the end of 2022.

However, Capital noted that the pilot project can still vary on each independent banking institution if they want to apply crypto trading or not. Nonetheless, many of these financial banks are showing their interest in the proposal. If this plan materializes, this will be the first big move in the European banking landscape as the report claimed.

Compared to other similar platforms, this project will cut down the use of an intermediary that is common among exchanges according to Capital. Customers will no longer have to go through additional verifications procedures for their transactions.

The German-owned Sparkassen is a group of banks that have over 370 branches in Europe with around $1 trillion in assets. Since it is an industry leader, the potential shift into allowing crypto-related services can widen the target audience of cryptocurrencies and pique the curiosity of other large banks. Meanwhile, S-Payment is the payment solution for private and corporate customers of the savings banks which develop and market concepts for them.

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