On August 25, it was announced that Germany’s WEG Bank has received a cryptocurrency trading and custody license from the country of Estonia. The announcement came via a tweet, which announced that the Baltic state had granted full access to the bank after it had applied for a securities trading and custody license.
In the announcement, WEG Bank explained, “We announce that as of today we have secured full access to a crypto trading and custody license in Estonia and are equally applying for a securities trading and custody license in Germany.”
WEG Bank is a small, specialized bank operating in Germany. The license gives them the ability to offer crypto trading services, which include fiat to crypto, crypto to fiat, and crypto to crypto transactions. Now the bank will be looking to get the same type of license in Germany.
That WEG Bank was able to secure one of these licenses from the Baltic nation is quite a feather in their cap. In May it was announced that Estonia was tightening their laws, making in much more difficult for banks and other financial institutions to be able to acquire this license.
At the time, Martin Helme, the Minister of Finance for Estonia, explained, “We have learned our lesson from the banking sector the hard way, and we must now deal with new international risks, with cryptocurrencies among the most urgent of these.”
WEG Bank was able to meet the strict requirements of the new regulatory laws. Any financial institution looking to offer trading in digital currencies had to demonstrate that they had a proven track record of sale and purchases in virtual currencies as well as the ability to provide a secure wallet service. Plus, they had to meet strict safety restrictions regarding the country’s anti-money laundering statute.
This approval continues the rise of the German bank. In April, Nimiq acquired 9.9% of the stake in WEG. The browser-based blockchain payment system company has intended to create a crypto to fiat bridge by developing a platform that would offer seamless exchanges between digital currency exchanges and traditional banking systems.
With customer interested and wanting cryptocurrencies and blockchain services offered at financial institutions, banks like WEG have looked to accommodate customer needs by providing a service that will make these transactions easy. Just days ago, Swiss Bank Maerki Baumann had 400 new clients sign on when it was announced that they would be providing blockchain and crypto services.
Now it looks like customers in Estonia will reap the benefits of the many services that WEG Bank offers. When they will open up operations for business within the country was not provided.
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
