Deutsche Bank has established a new UK-based digital assets team to explore further opportunities in digital custody, to build digital asset infrastructure and to interpret emerging regulatory frameworks.
Speaking at Money 20/20 Asia, Kriti Jain, a managing director at the bank, said: “We have now set up a digital assets team looking at digital custody, building the infrastructure and doing a lot of partnerships with peers. It is important to realise that you need these partnerships to be able to scale.”
Deutsche Bank previously announced a partnership for custody services for institutional clients’ cryptocurrencies and tokenised assets in 2023, with Taurus.
Speaking in Bangkok, Jain said the business had “come a long way in educating internally” on the potential that exists from stablecoins and in digital assets more broadly.
“A lot of traditional bankers appreciate that this is the future,” she said, adding that payment methods using digital assets and stablecoins can “give more transparency than traditional payments” when applied correctly.
Jain said that the bank has now set up a series of stakeholder working groups to evaluate how stable reserve coins are stored, how digital assets should best be managed and to understand the necessary regulatory frameworks within jurisdictions and the related regulatory oversight required.
“These areas are important for us,” she said. “We are already seeing the integration of stablecoins happening. How do the regulators see it?
“For us, it means building the expertise, ensuring the rails are there and that the technology is there. But that’s easy. What is really important is the interaction with the regulators – getting the right risk appetite to enable our partners, and the bank. We need to work together to make this infrastructure real.”
Jain was speaking on a panel on the Moneypot Activation Stage – sponsored by Circle – on Tuesday (22 April), following the announcement that Deutsche Bank was among several global banks to work with Circle on the launch of its new payment network (details here).
