German savings banks are planning to allow customers to invest in major digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) straight from checking accounts.

Savings banks in German-speaking countries, also known equally Sparkassen, are working on a airplane pilot to launch an in-house cryptocurrency wallet and exchange adjacent twelvemonth, local business magazine Capital reported on Monday.

The pilot project is subject to approval by Sparkasse committees early next yr, while the cyberbanking clan aims to develop related services at the beginning of 2022.

A spokesperson for the German Savings Banks Association confirmed the news to Cointelegraph, stating:

"More and more consumers are interested in crypto-assets. One in 10 customers of the High german Savings Banks states he/she owns or has owned crypto-assets. Considering their expectations, the Savings Banks Finance Group has to look into crypto-assets, besides."

The representative added that an proficient group from the German IT service provider S-Payment is at present "exploring ways to provide an option to safely store crypto-assets in a wallet for selected customers."

A corresponding pilot project should showtime first with private savings banks, with each of 370 Sparkassen independently deciding whether or not to innovate crypto trading. According to Upper-case letter'southward sources, a number of the banks have already expressed significant interest in the crypto platform.

Sparkassen is a group of commercial savings banks, each operating independently in German-speaking countries, joined in a decentralized structure. With effectually 50 1000000 customers, the savings banks reportedly agree 1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) in total assets.

S-Payment did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph'southward request for annotate.

Related: New German authorities cites crypto in coalition understanding

Deutschland has emerged equally i of the world'due south near crypto-friendly countries, with the Federal Financial Supervisory Say-so issuing a crypto custody business license for Coinbase's German arm earlier this year. German stock market operator Deutsche Boerse has besides listed more than 20 crypto substitution-traded products on its digital exchange, Xetra.