S-Payment, the payment competence center of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, is actually working on a pilot project for crypto integration. BTC-ECHO learned this exclusively from the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.
So far it was just rumors, now it’s confirmed: The Savings bank wants to enable trading with Bitcoin in a pilot project. Like BTC-ECHO in conversation with the press office German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV), one actually plans to offer trading in Bitcoin and Co. We were informed by email that they were working on a corresponding solution:
The interest in crypto assets is enormous, and the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe also sees it. At S-Payment, the subsidiary of the DSV Group that specializes in payment services, a project is therefore being carried out to determine which possibilities and risks a wallet offers in which customers of Sparkassen can safely store crypto assets. The project team prepares decisions in the committees of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe in the first half of 2022.
Alexander Hartberg, press spokesman for the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe
Accordingly, a team of S-payment on a wallet for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. S-Payment is the “Payment Competence Center of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe”, an in-house subcontractor that specializes in payment solutions within the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.
First reported Finance Forward of the project.
Potential: huge
This would be a one-time event for the German financial scene. After all, with around 50 million customers, the savings banks are still the market leaders in this country. Similar projects from other financial institutions like that Commerzbank or the German bank are not known, however. It was only in November that BTC-ECHO carried out extensive research to ask major banks whether and how they wanted to include crypto custody in their business model. The sobering result: Nobody is aiming for crypto truth.
It is not yet known whether the savings banks will take the custody of the coins into their own hands or commission an external service provider to do so. The business with cryptocurrencies could already be launched in the coming year. Before that, however, the committees still have to decide – and the decisions have to be implemented by the individual savings banks themselves. After all, the 370 savings banks that exist in this country always function as independent banks in the end.
If the pilot project actually starts next year, a lot would be done for bitcoin adoption in this country, as a crypto adoption by the Sparkasse would lower some entry hurdles and suddenly increase the target group for crypto currencies.
Erik Meierhoff’s personality is likely to be decisive for the step towards crypto adoption. The digital expert has been part of the management team at S-Payment since May 2020 and is considered an innovative force within the management team.