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ised common software versions throughout
the community. On the other hand, I see an
ongoing challenge to provide a state-of-the
art IT infrastructure, in particular in providing
compliance with evolving enterprise architec-
ture, as well as giving support to future inno-
vative technologies in the field of international
payments.
You represent one of the strongest sending
(and receiving) institutions in Eurogiro, but
also an organisation that sees its cross-border
payment business changing dramatically due
to, for instance, the emergence of SEPA. How
do you now see the value of the Eurogiro
membership for Deutsche Postbank?
SEPA really is leading the way into another
dimension. It not only affects cross-border
payments, but the entire payment set-up of all
countries in the common market.
SEPA leads to even further concentration and
higher scales of efficiency in the pan-Europe-
an payments market but also brings gigantic
cataclysms in the domestic payment set-up.
Imagine – almost the total pan-European
payment exchange will be handled homoge-
neously on one single standard - the SEPA
schemes - representing the next generation of
payment processing.
However, although we, here in Europe, are
currently extremely pre-occupied with prepara-
tions for the SEPA migration end date – Febru-
ary 2014 – all of us are very aware of the rest
of the world and the needs of our customers
for payments into all countries. In terms of
global reach and interconnection between the
global postal and banking world, Eurogiro
always has been, and continues to be, of
enormous value for us. Deutsche Postbank
AG stands firmly to its roots and will continue
to use the Eurogiro network for the handling
of a significant portion of its international
payments
Deutsche Postbank is the single settlement
provider for EUR in Eurogiro. How do you see
the role of the settlement providers, both in
the past and looking ahead?
The introduction of the Euro really led to many
efficiencies, one of them being the introduc-
tion of the Euro Single Settlement Solution for
the Eurogiro community. We are convinced
that the single settlement services consti-
tute one of the unique value propositions
of Eurogiro, proven by an ongoing growing
customer base, and we are very proud to act
as the current Euro Single Settlement Service
Provider. We take this responsibility very
seriously and will do our utmost to maintain
the high quality of the service. Furthermore,
the continous enhancement of the single
settlement principle led to the creation of the
USSP and Multicurrency SSP, enabling the
community to enjoy the benefits of account
and liquidity concentration, not only in Euro
but in other currencies as well.
Partnerships have been very important in the
history of Eurogiro, such as Western Union
and SWIFT. What about partnerships in the
future?
Eurogiro is a very successful centralised cor-
respondent banking-based network. With a
standardised legal and operational frame-
work, Correspondent Banking will continue
as an attractive business. However, profit
is under pressure as banks need to comply
with more regulation and deal with increased
competition. At the same time, banks need to
prepare and arm themselves for the ongoing
financial crisis and economic slowdown.
In these challenging times I am convinced
that partnerships will become even more
important in the future. I share the view of a
recently published SWIFT white paper that
there is a compelling need to evolve towards
a customer-centric “experience banking” mo-
del, where customers use a simple banking
service when they need it, and where banks
link together the best components to create a
consistent and seamless customer service.
Whilst Eurogiro customers will take responsi-
bility for their own improvements, Eurogiro of-
fers an ideal platform for collaborative projects
which will be of increasing importance in the
future for all of us.
The payments industry is developing rapidly
with much competition from known and new
types of providers. What could be the roles
and opportunities for, in particular, postal
organisations in this market?
The world is changing around us. Payments
via PayPal for example are simpler and much
faster than transferring money from one bank
account to another. Postal organisations with
their large country-covering branch networks
and huge customer base are in a very attrac-
tive position to also take up a role in newly-
evolving payment instruments. Eurogiro, with
its bridging function interlinking the postal and
financial world, is again ideally positioned to
bring together both existing and new market
players and to provide significant added value
for all participants.
The close connection between Deutsche Bank
and Deutsche Postbank has caught many
headlines in the press. Can you outline what
Eurogiro members should expect from this?
The integration of Postbank into Deutsche
Bank AG is a huge ongoing project which will
take several years to finalise. For Eurogiro
and the members it is actually good news. In
the past we have seen institutions leaving
Eurogiro as a result of mergers and take-
overs. With Deutsche Bank and Deutsche
Postbank you have two very active Eurogiro
members in the community and both of our
institutions are strongly committed to maintain
and even intensify their engagement with the
Eurogiro community.
Finally, how would you like to influence the
future Eurogiro?
I would strongly recommend Eurogiro as
an interactive platform for the development
of enhanced business intelligence services
to better identify new market opportunities,
utilising the unique combination of Postal and
Banking roots, aiming at setting up collabora-
tive projects amongst all parties involved.
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Deutsche Postbank AG
>
Eurogiro founding member in 1989
>
Euro Settlement Service Provider (ESSP)
for Eurogiro community since 2004
>
One of Germany’s largest retail banks
(14 million customers, 20,000 employees)
>
Leading in online and telephone banking
– most used online offering
>
Leading, fully integrated transaction bank
in Germany. Providing payment services
for other banks such as Deutsche Bank,
HypoVereinsbank, HSH Nordbank, thus
covering 20% of Germany’s payments
market.
>
Majority owned by Deutsche Bank
AG (93,7%)