French banking giant Societe Generale’s crypto division, SG Forge, received regulatory approval to provide crypto custody and trading services. Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the region’s financial regulator, granted the registration.
While SG Forge’s exclusive registration enables crypto custody, purchase, sale, and exchange services, the company is yet to register as a trading platform. Crypto’s regulatory framework in France requires businesses to register with the AMF before they can operate as a trading platform and offer crypto services including investment and custody of digital assets.
For perspective, France is preparing to become the next crypto-hub and an early adopter of the up-and-coming web3 evolution. Earlier this year, the nation’s largest banking group BNP Paribas Securities Services partnered with METACO for digital asset custody services. Following this, the partnership further integrated METACO’s bank-grade digital asset custody and orchestration platform, Harmonize, into its existing infrastructure.
According to the press release, the partnership aimed at underpinning the bank’s institutional custody offering and unifying governance across its multiple systems, allowing institutional clients to store, issue, and settle digital securities alongside their traditional assets.
Wayne Hughes, Head of Digital Assets at BNP Paribas Securities Services, said — “Our objective is to offer our clients a single view of all these different types of assets for complete transparency, greater operational efficiency, and risk management.”
Institutional adoption of crypto is on the rise in France. Apart from banks partnering with crypto platforms to provide crypto services, the number of crypto firms that have received digital asset service provider registration in France has also increased. Eminent crypto exchanges such as Binance, Crypto.com, and Luno are already on the list of platforms that have secured registration.
