One of the largest banking institutions in Germany has confirmed that it applied for a local crypto license earlier this year, marking the first time a major bank has made a move toward cryptocurrencies in the country. A spokesperson from Commerzbank confirmed to local media outlet Börsen-Zeitung on April 14 that it “applied for the crypto custody license in the first quarter of 2022.” If approved, it would be authorized to offer exchange services along with custody and protection of crypto-assets. Commerzbank serves over 18 million customers and over 70,000 institutional clients, and the cryptocurrency offering will reportedly target its …

German securities marketplace Deutsche Boerse and major bank Commerzbank have jointly invested in a new holding company that plans to focus on blockchain technology and digital assets. Deutsche Boerse announced Thursday that the company and Commerzbank entered a strategic partnership with fintech firm 360X to develop new blockchain-based digital marketplaces, for existing real asset classes like art and real estate. A representative from Deutsche Boerse confirmed to Cointelegraph that Deutsche Boerse invested 10 million euros ($12 million) for a stake of about 50% in 360X, while Commerzbank owns a lower double-digit stake. A Deutsche Boerse spokesperson noted that Thursday’s announcement …

A major Turkish bank completed the country’s first-ever international trade finance transaction based on distributed ledger technology, or DLT. This adds another milestone to the country’s increasing blockchain efforts. İşbank, the first Turkish bank to join R3’s Corda platform earlier this year, now became the first bank in Turkey to use blockchain technology on trade finance transactions, Cointelegraph Turkey reported on Jun. 5. Using Corda blockchain technology, İşbank and Commerzbank secured payments by digitally processing the related data transfer. The transaction took place on 27 May 2020 between İşbank, Şişecam, Kuraray Europe GmbH, and Commerzbank AG and supported the trade …

Commerzbank, Credit Suisse and UBS carried out the first transactions on Deutsche Boerse and HQLAX’s distributed ledger technology-enabled (DLT) security lending platform. According to a Deutsche Boerse press release on Dec. 3, the company jointly developed the platform with fintech firm HQLAX, which was launched by R3 and uses Corda DLT technology to provide liquidity and collateral management products. The platform was able to swap ownership of a basket of German government bonds and a basket of corporate bonds between UBS and Commerzbank while employing Clearstream Banking as a custodian. It also conducted a cross-custodian swap between UBS and Credit …

German securities marketplace Deutsche Boerse and Commerzbank have completed a joint pilot transaction settlement of post-trade securities using digital tokens and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Tokens generated from both commercial bank money and securities While the transaction also involved major German asset manager MEAG, which operates under Munich Re-owned ERGO Group, one of the largest German insurance companies, Deutsche Boerse officially announced on Oct. 23. Meanwhile, the underlying technology and the legal concept were jointly developed by Deutsche Boerse and Commerzbank, the firm noted. The prototype settlement performed a delivery-versus-payment transaction and the transfer of tokenized cash. According to the …

Commerzbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) have completed another milestone trade on the Marco Polo platform. As reported Aug. 15, on this occasion, logistics provider Logwin AG was integrated into the digital process chain, digitally and in real time. Same same but different As with an earlier transaction, the trade took place between German supplier KSB and Taiwanese mechanical engineering group Voith. Another shipment of special hydraulic couplings was delivered using blockchain technology via the Marco Polo trade finance network. However, for the first time ever this transaction included the integration of logistics provider Logwin with transport details being entered directly …

Blockchain consortium R3’s trade finance platform Marco Polo has completed its first real transactions, a press release from Commerzbank, one of the participants, confirmed on March 28. Marco Polo, which is built on R3 enterprise blockchain platform Corda, successfully facilitated a trade between Germany and China, involving two German firms. Tech group Voith and pump manufacturer KSB SE were the initiators of the transactions, which constituted a pilot scheme for Marco Polo. One transaction saw couplings delivered from Germany to China, while a second was based on hydraulic pumps delivered solely within Germany. The banks facilitating the operation were German …

German financial services company Commerzbank and securities marketplace Deutsche Boerse have completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a legally binding repo transaction using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The news was reported by Cointelegraph auf Deutsch on March 6. A repo transaction is commonly used for short-term borrowing, and allows dealers to sell securities to investors — often for as short a time as overnight — and repurchase them the following day, or as otherwise determined. For the party selling the security, the process is termed a repo, whereas for the counterparty, it is known as a reverse repurchase agreement. For the …