4 signs that Deutsche Bank is strengthening its transaction banking business in Asia Pacific

New initiatives include the Asia Accelerator and FX4Cash.

In a statement, Deutsche Bank announced the successful implementation of various client and marketdriven initiatives for its Global Transaction Banking business in the Asia Pacific region over the past year, reaffirming the Bank’s commitment to the region and to its transaction banking business, one of its core divisions.

Deutsche Bank provides its Asia Pacific-based clients with a comprehensive array of products and solutions ranging from global products for global currencies to targeted local solutions and services in over 30 Asian currencies.

The Bank’s integrated service model enables clients to seamlessly transition between solutions as their business model evolves and helps them operate more efficiently in this changing environment.

Asia Accelerator – a virtual regional clearing solution expediting payments during Asia business day
Deutsche Bank’s innovative Asia Accelerator solution is tailored to address the specific challenges faced by financial institution clients in Asia, such as the need for timely and reliable settlement of payment flows within Asia in USD and Euro, as well as liquidity and risk management.

The highly efficient solution leverages Deutsche Bank’s sophisticated algorithms and textrecognition technology to automatically identify and prioritise intra-Asia USD and Euro payments.

This solution is self-enhancing as it preferentially directs client liquidity to financial institutions that are active and operative during the night-time U.S. hours and are therefore able to recycle this liquidity for additional flows within the region.

With Asia Accelerator, Deutsche Bank has in effect created a virtual regional clearing system that builds upon the operational excellence achieved on the global technology platform.

FX4Cash expansion in Asia
Deutsche Bank is committed to enabling its clients to optimise their own operating range by benefiting from multi-currency solutions, such as FX4Cash.

Deutsche Bank’s FX4Cash solution was recently expanded to Malaysia and Thailand, making it available for the first time to clients in these two key Asian markets.

FX4Cash combines Deutsche Bank’s number one market share in global foreign exchange* with its leading ranking in cash management to provide a cross-currency payments solution that gives its clients access to a total of 125 currencies, through a single platform, and the ability to manage cross-border, crosscurrency payments via one base currency account.

Additionally, with the increasing use of the Renminbi (RMB) for cross-border trade settlement, the  currency was added to the Bank’s FX4Cash platform in June 2012. FX4Cash now has over 2,000 financial institutions and corporates registered and actively using the platform. 

Leading cross-border RMB trade settlement and clearing
In order to provide its clients with the opportunity to gain exposure to potential RMB appreciation and asset diversification, Deutsche Bank has developed a comprehensive suite of holistic RMBdenominated solutions for corporate and financial institution clients. These include liquidity management, cross-border payments, RMB currency clearing through Hong Kong or Shanghai, trade finance services and financial supply chain solutions.

Reaffirming its commitment to the RMB, Deutsche Bank has also completed the first cross-border RMB payment under the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Shanghai’s Simplified RMB CrossBorder Payment Pilot Scheme (SRCP). The SRCP streamlines the process for cross-border trade settlement payments made in RMB, as qualifying corporates are no longer required to submit original trade documentation supporting each payment.

Global capabilities with local insights in Asia
With teams located across the Asia Pacific region, Deutsche Bank’s Global Transaction Banking division leverages its global technology to give financial institution and corporate clients in Asia  access to treasury solutions that combine speed and efficiency with cost effectiveness.

Deutsche Bank’s clients in Asia benefit from locally-based experienced professionals who speak their language and who are familiar with local as well as global market-specific practices. The Bank also has dedicated local client service teams for financial institution clients in 14 Asian countries.

Demonstrating the Bank’s leading position in the region, Deutsche Bank was recently rated Best Provider of Local Customer Service and Best Bank for providing Thought Leadership in Transaction Banking in Asia/Pacific Rim, by banks in the Asian markets that participated in FImetrix LLC’s study, ‘Bank-to-Bank Services to Asia and the Pacific Rim 2012'.

Lisa Robins, Asia Pacific Head of Global Transaction Banking, Deutsche Bank, said: “Despite the challenging environment, our Global Transaction Banking business continues to grow in the Asia Pacific region, which demonstrates our focus on addressing our clients' needs and our position of  strength in the industry. Deutsche Bank is committed to continue investing in its platforms and people to further enhance its service offerings. We remain focused on delivering innovative solutions, as well as service and operational excellence to help our clients operate more efficiently in this key region.”

John Ball, Global Head of Sales for Cash Management Financial Institutions, Global Transaction Banking at Deutsche Bank, said: “Our clients are at the core of everything we do and our technology enhancements are specifically designed in response to client demand. We have built solutions that meet increasingly complex payments processing and reporting demands by enhancing the functionality of existing core STP and clearing capabilities to benefit our financial institution client base in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.”