Société Générale, which is one of the largest French banks, is launching a cryptocurrency fund management service. In collaboration with its subsidiary Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS), management companies will be able to launch crypto-focused funds. Let’s see in detail what offers this new service offers.
A new crypto service for Société Générale
The French bank is launching a new cryptocurrency custody service. This is dedicated to investors and asset managers in order to facilitate the creation of dedicated funds. Société Générale has announced that the experiment will be “simple and suitable […] within the European regulatory framework“. The bank’s subsidiary SGSS wants to develop this offer to meet the growing demand from traditional investors who want to move towards crypto.
SGSS communicated on its desire to develop its services in the field of cryptocurrency:
More and more investors want to integrate cryptocurrencies into their portfolios. Management companies are therefore seeking to develop new ranges of solutions invested mainly in digital assets.
SGSS will have a mission of liability manager, valuer but will also act as fund depositary.
A partnership with the Arquant company
Société Générale intends to join forces with the company recognized by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) to carry out its project. The general manager of‘EnoughEron Angjele announced:
This solution provides Arquant Capital with an innovative structure that allows us to develop our offer and focus on creating value for our clients.
The CEO of SGSS was also enthusiastic about this new collaboration:
By combining Societe Generale’s innovation expertise with the technical skills of Arquant Capital, we are strengthening SGSS’ ability to meet the diversification needs of management companies.
The general company is not at its beginnings with cryptocurrency since it had announced that it wanted to get closer to MakerDAO. This decentralized finance project had launched the Stablecoin DAI. Société Générale then made an offer to finance the project for 20 million dollars.
Société Générale, the third largest bank in France, just made a collateral onboarding application to Maker for 20 million USD.
Backed by EUR bonds, proposed by their blockchain subsidiary.https://t.co/hxGEMOIWjy
— Rune (@RuneKek) September 30, 2021
Growing bank interest in cryptocurrency
Société Générale joins the short list of French banks that offer cryptocurrency management services. Indeed, we only count 3 French banks favorable to cryptos. Among them is Boursorama Banque which is a subsidiary of Société Générale. This bank had launched a service dedicated to cryptocurrencies in 2021 by giving its customers the possibility of linking their crypto wallet to the Boursorama application. The other two banks that offer crypto-related services are Fortuneo and N26.
In contrast, many traditional banks are still reluctant to offer crypto services to their customers. Indeed, customer transfers to crypto platforms not registered with the AMF (Financial Markets Authority) are blocked.
There are of course online banks that make it easy to trade cryptocurrencies. The latter are often much more lax than traditional banks. One can cite for example Revolut which greatly facilitates crypto investments.
It is also interesting to note that banks and more particularly fund management companies are increasingly interested in the cryptocurrency sector. Thus, we see more and more services dedicated to cryptos appearing from fund managers. The most significant example is obviously the launch of crypto funds created by the Nasdaq. As a reminder, the Nasdaq manages the second largest stock market in the United States.
Societe Generale Securities Services in a few figures
SGSS is one of the 3 largest European custodians and is in the top 10 worldwide. It alone represents 4,277 billion dollars in assets on deposit. It provides fiduciary services for 3,312 funds and handles the valuation of 4,426 funds. The Société Générale subsidiary has 22 sites around the world and employs more than 4,000 people.
The company has issued bonds in the past on the Ethereum blockchain. In addition, it has its own security token on the Tezos Blockchain. Finally, it is part of the project of development of a virtual euro in collaboration with the European Central Bank.