Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), the top state-backed lender in Germany, has announced a ground-breaking collaboration with Bitpanda, an Austrian trading platform. For LBBW, this partnership is a big step toward its foray into the bitcoin custody services market.
Through this strategic alliance, LBBW aims to offer an “Investment-as-a-Service” infrastructure, enabling the storage and procurement of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). Stefanie Münz, a member of the LBBW board of directors, emphasized the commitment to providing corporate clients with secure and innovative digital asset solutions. She said, “By offering crypto-asset custody, we are positioning ourselves with a clear added value for our corporate clients – while ensuring the highest security standards. Bitpanda provides the necessary technical and regulatory infrastructure to offer our customers innovative and, above all, secure solutions in the area of digital assets.”
Initially targeting corporate clients, LBBW, in collaboration with Bitpanda, plans to roll out crypto custody services in the second half of 2024. Jürgen Harengel, COO of Corporate Bank at LBBW, highlighted the growing demand for digital assets among corporate customers and expressed confidence in the establishment of crypto assets as integral components of future business models. He said, “The demand from our corporate customers for digital assets is increasing. We are convinced that crypto assets will establish themselves as a building block for further business models. With the cooperation, we are creating the technical and regulatory basis at an early stage to best support the individual crypto strategies of our corporate customers.”