As the new AML laws go into effect, numerous names in the German banking sector are reportedly trying to obtain regulators’ greenlight to make their crypto assets services available. 

Specifically, Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has reportedly witnessed a sudden surge in the number of applications, from banking institutions making efforts to obtain the the title of “regulated cryptocurrency custodians”.

Up until January 2020, new regulation has put a ban on banks, from providing services apart from their traditional securities, nominally stocks and bonds, as an attempt to cover crypto coins, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP.

The new legislation will provide banks dealing with crypto assets some breathing space – a transitional period of time, which will end by November 2020. Every firm engaging in the market is required to register their interest with the regulator, with end of March this year as the deadline. 

The number of applications has reportedly exceeded the predictions from the Finance Ministry. 

“The market is growing faster than the Federal Ministry of Finance has predicted. This is a blessing and a curse. The high demand […] shows that more and more firms accept blockchain technology, but can also be seen to be a result of the new legislation.”

The new legislation will include the complete scope of digital assets – from cryptocurrencies to tokens – classifying them as representatives, in a digital form, of a value without the status of legal tender.

Berlin Solaris Bank – which has managed to set up a crypto-related project – is one of the fastest banks to register with BaFin.