Societe Generale Introduces Services for Asset Managers Developing Crypto Funds

The French bank is responding to increased demand from investors who want to integrate cryptocurrency into their portfolios.

By Jamie Crawley

Sep 21, 2022 at 2:30 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 21, 2022 at 3:13 p.m. UTC

CDCROP: Societe Generale (Shutterstock) — (Shutterstock)

Jamie Crawley

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.

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Societe Generale (GLE), the third-largest French bank by market cap, has introduced new services for asset manager clients that are looking to respond to the increased demand from investors for cryptocurrencies.

The services will allow the asset managers to offer crypto funds in a "simple and adapted" way within a framework that is compliant with European regulations, the bank said Wednesday.

The service has been adopted by French asset manager Arquant Capital SAS, which is opening a range of funds investing in crypto, starting with two products based on bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and derivatives.

The move by Societe Generale, which had over $1.6 trillion in assets as of 2021 and is among the largest banks in Europe, demonstrates the appetite by mainstream financial institutions to offer crypto-related services to their clients as demand increases.

This has been particularly prevalent among French banking heavyweights in recent months. In July, CoinDesk reported that BNP Paribas, France's largest bank, said it was entering into crypto custody in a partnership with Swiss digital asset safekeeping firm Metaco.

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