Deutsche Bank signs wealth of global deals
Deutsche Bank has signed deals with Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and China Merchant Bank to use its products and services in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) will use Deutsche Bank’s euro cross-border payment clearing tools and its European trade expertise to assist letters of credit into Europe. DIB is broadening its existing relationship with Deutsche Bank to include payments and trade for the first time.
DIB was the first modern commercial Islamic bank when it launched in 1975 and is still the largest in the UAE with 82 branches. Islamic banking is based on principles of Sharia, which forbid the charging of interest, as well as products that are associated with gambling, alcohol, tobacco and weapons. Islamic banking is growing at 10-15 per cent annually, according to figures provided by the World Bank.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has decided to use Deutsche Bank’s Autobahn App Market, which will provide access to research, analytics, data and pricing tools on a single platform. It will allow the bank to track performance, streamline daily workflows, mitigate risk and increase efficiencies.
ADCB is the fourth-largest bank in the UAE and third in Abu Dhabi. Founded in 1985, the bank is active in all banking services that span corporate, retail and commercial banking, as well as in the areas of treasury derivatives, infrastructure finance, private banking and wealth management.
The Autobahn App Market has 165 apps. The idea is to connect ADCB to electronic transaction banking services via one point of access. The app market also provides research, analytics, data and pricing tools, so that ADCB can track performance, streamline workflows, reduce its risk and increase efficiencies.
Finally, Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and China Merchants Bank (CMB) have both signed deals with Deutsche Bank to use the firm’s cash management tool Asia Accelerator and FX4Cash Receivables solution respectively.
ABC will use the tools to process its US dollar and Euro intra-Asia payments. The plan is to use Deutsche Bank’s offering to provide real-time regional settlement via the bank’s automated payment platform. ABC also aims to streamline its operational processes and optimise its liquidity.
CMB already uses FX4Cash Payables: it will now use FX4Cash Receivables for its foreign currency retail and commercial receipts, eliminating manual steps along the payment chain. The bank has 105 branches and 867 sub branches in mainland China across 110 cities. It is also active in Hong Kong, New York, London and Taipei. ABC has 350 million customers through its 24,000 branches and outlets in China. The bank also has branches in the US, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.
