Last Friday, the Federal financial Supervisory authority of Germany (BaFin) spoke in detail about the operational activities of German banks related to cryptocurrency. In response to the question of MP left the parliamentary party Die Linke Thomas Lutz (Thomas Lutze), a representative of the Ministry reported that six German banks own cryptocurrency capital, or participate in the trading of digital currencies. About it writes Reuters.
BaFin chose not to give specific names of institutions. According to TrustNodes, one of them is VPE WertpapierhandelsBank AG (VPE) is a private Bank providing institutional investors with services in the field of cryptocurrency trading.
The Ministry also stressed that all licensed banks have a legitimate right to establish in their departments a kind of exchange offices:
“Each institution has permission to implement any proprietary trading, has the right to install machines to exchange bitcoins for euros and Vice versa. However, at the moment there is no evidence that this right was exercised by any of the institutions.”
However, the Department stressed that this should not be interpreted as a signal of the possible presence of national cryptocurrencies:
“Given the large number of unresolved problems and risks opposed to the benefits unclear, the issue is the Central banks of the EU digital currency to be widely distributed in the Eurozone at the moment is not possible”.
The report also said that BiFin was not open, no one investigation on suspicion of the national Bank to launder money using crypto currency that, according to Reuters associated with “due diligence and compliance with reporting obligations” institutions to the Ministry.
However, according to BiFin, from mid-2017, the office handled 500 suspicious cases related to cryptocurrency. Recently, the regional public Prosecutor’s office of Germany announced the completion of a quick sale of the confiscated cryptocurrency amounting to €12 million.
Germany is one of the countries with the slow introduction of cryptocurrency among developed countries. However, in February it became known that the Coalition government of Germany intends to develop a universal legal framework for cryptocurrencies in the EU and at the international level.
