Deutsche Bank Leaps Into the Crypto World

Deutsche Bank AG, a big bank in Germany, has asked for permission from the authorities to offer a storage service for digital assets like cryptocurrencies.

David Lynne, the person in charge of the bank's business banking division, spoke about this during a conference on Tuesday. "We're growing our business with digital assets and how to store them," he said. Lynne also said that they've applied for a license to handle digital assets with Bafin, the organization in Germany that oversees securities.

This move is part of a bigger plan to earn more income from fees at Deutsche Bank's business bank, according to Lynne. It's a strategy similar to what Deutsche Bank's investment part, DWS Group, is doing to earn more income from services linked to digital assets.

The business banking parts of Deutsche Bank first hinted at their plans to start a digital asset storage service at the end of 2020, but they never said exactly when it would start. Stefan Hoops was in charge of the division at that time, but Lynne took over about a year ago when Hoops became the CEO of DWS.