Despite the ongoing crypto bear market, the French international banking group, BNP Paribas (BNP) has reportedly signed a crypto custody partnership with Swiss digital asset safekeeping firm Metaco. CoinDesk reported on the latest update via insider information. However, BNP Paribas was unresponsive, and Metaco denied comments on the matter.
Following this, it will not be Metaco’s first crypto custody collaboration with a French bank. Last month, the France-based financial institution, Societe Generale (GLE) also joined forces with Metaco to work with the bank’s digital asset subsidiary SG FORGE in a custody tech deal.
In light of this, Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani told CoinDesk that last year,
“The series of banks that were already working on certain topics suddenly transformed from innovation pilots to concrete go-to-market strategies”, further ascertaining that investors were to soon witness “a series of announcements involving very big custodians. It’s almost FOMO [fear of missing out] as these large banking players know that their future somehow depends on this capability.”
Global Regulators Disapprove France’s Pro-Crypto Stance
On one hand, France is establishing itself as a prominent crypto hub. On the other hand, global regulators are pressing against the region’s pro-crypto approach. This May, the crypto exchange giant, Binance received approval to operate as a registered Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) in France. However, the country’s capital market regulator — Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) faced backlash for its decision.
Last month, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Aurore Lalucq asked the AMF to review its decision, further marking it as “surprising and even worrying”. She pointed out that it was an oddly concerning ruling, “especially since many other supervisors, and not the least significant ones, have already refused to give Binance any form of registration or approval”.
In addition to that, the lawmaker said,
“It is our job as European and national legislators to move as fast as possible to clarify the situation so that institutions can fulfill their responsibilities efficiently.”