FinPlanet

The founders trace their work back to 2018, when they helped set up some of the first institutional crypto businesses in Germany. Dirk Sturz built the crypto business of Börse Stuttgart as CEO of Börse Stuttgart Digital Exchange and co-founded Sowa Labs, the company behind the trading app Bison.

Sebastian Liebscher and Maximilian Ludwig built the crypto business at Bankhaus von der Heydt, one of the first German banks to offer crypto custody to other institutions. Dirk Sturz spoke for FinPlanet at the Chainlink panel of Finance Loop in Frankfurt in April 2024.

Most FinPlanet projects end with a license that a supervisor grants to the client. For AllUnity, the euro stablecoin firm that DWS founded with Galaxy and the market maker Flow Traders, FinPlanet prepared the license application and the organization, and BaFin granted the e-money license nine months after the application.

For 21X FinPlanet ran the application under the DLT Pilot Regime, and 21X became the first company in the EU licensed to operate a DLT trading and settlement system. FinPlanet also wrote the internal policies with which the Frankfurt registrar SWIAT obtained its license as a crypto securities registrar in under twelve months.

For V-Bank, a custodian bank for independent asset managers, FinPlanet drafted the internal documentation and the new-product process and then accompanied the MiCAR license. V-Bank became the second credit institution in Germany under the CRR to be licensed for crypto custody.

FinPlanet also supported dwpbank in its MiCAR notification for the custody and transfer of crypto assets, the route that existing banks use instead of a new license. For the Austrian crypto broker Cryptonow, FinPlanet wrote the DORA chapters of the application, and the FMA granted the license after six months.

FinPlanet sorts its consulting work into four service lines on its website. Strategic Transformation covers target customers, products and the operating model, and a top-five asset manager reached a board-approved plan for retail crypto trading this way within three months.

Operational Excellence covers provider selection, processes and the license application, and a private bank with little DLT experience went live after 15 months. People and Culture trains staff with app-based micro-learning and workshops, from the board to the back office, and Turnkey Business Building takes a new company from incorporation to the license.

FinPlanet names DekaBank, Union Investment, Berenberg, Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe, Metzler, StoneX, Raisin Bank and Tomorrow Bank among its clients. Many of them are banks that add MiCAR services or crypto securities to an existing business.

As a member of the Bundesverband für elektronische Wertpapiere, FinPlanet works with registrars and platforms on the rules for electronic securities. The association counts registrars such as e-Sec and platforms such as tokenforge among its members and partners.