Credit Agricole’s CACEIS registers as a digital asset services provider in France

CACEIS Bank, which is owned by both Credit Agricole and Santander, registered as a digital assets services provider with France’s markets regulator. 

CACEIS is the asset servicing group “dedicated to asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, banks, private equity and real estate funds, brokers and corporate clients,” according to its website. 

Santander and Credit Agricole created CACEIS back in 2019 as a custodial bank. According to AMF’s website, CACEIS registered on June 20. It has roughly 4.6 trillion euros in assets under custody, or over $5 trillion.

France has been fairly welcoming to crypto asset providers, though it did vote to impose stricter licensing requirements under the new EU rules back in March. 

The EU recently passed MiCA, or Markets in Crypto Assets, which is the framework being used to create crypto regulation in Europe. MiCA aims to install environmental safeguards, supervisory provisions and consumer protections in the digital asset space. It requires crypto asset service providers to register with the relevant national authorities to service EU clients. 

In May, the European Securities and Markets Authority pushed for firms to register crypto products ahead of the official MiCA launch. 

Binance is also registered with the French watchdog and has been since May of last year.

However, reports suggest that Binance is now facing an investigation from French authorities.  In an email to Blockworks, the company confirmed an on-site visit from the authorities but said that it abides “by all laws in France, just as we do in every other market we operate.”

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