The payments market and Eurogiro have
changed dramatically since Deutsche
Bank joined Eurogiro as Bankers Trust
Company in 1999 and became the pre-
ferred US dollar clearer to many Eurogiro
members. What do you regard as the
greatest achievements of Eurogiro and
what should Eurogiro focus on to meet
the challenges of tomorrow?
Eurogiro’s unique strengths lie in its intercon-
nection between postal organisations and
banks, which results in an unrivalled global
last-mile payment reach. In addition, Euro-
giro and its members form a strong commu-
nity which seeks economic solutions for the
common benefit of all its members. Because
members do not usually directly compete
with each other in domestic markets, the
organisation’s internal communication is
more effective and transparent compared
with most other communities. Furthermore,
Eurogiro has always sought to combine the
benefits of a strong community with that of
innovation – indeed, the organisation intro-
duced bulk payments processing more than
20 years ago. While such values continue to
be upheld – and are part of the company’s
DNA – current challenges such as strict
regulations and payment volumes migrating
to SEPA require the company to stay equally
focused on its core competence as a mes-
saging network.
You represent an organisation that is
one of the largest payments receivers in
Eurogiro in brief by Mr. Christian Westerhaus
Christian Westerhaus has recently been appointed to the Board of Eurogiro, next to acting as member of
the Board of the EBA Clearing Company and has a long record as an active member of various global and
European industry committees. Christian Westerhaus is the Global Head of Cash Product Management and
EMEA Regional Head of Product Management, Global Transaction Banking, Deutsche Bank. In this interview
he expresses his view on the aspirations and challenges of Eurogiro
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your global payments community May 2013 - Issue 02
10
India Post ramps up
services in its giant
Post office network
Eurogiro celebrates
20 years’ anniversary
in Budapest
Michel Stuijt appointed
as new CEO of Eurogiro
Eurogiro members
to send to mobile
wallets using Eurogiro
connection
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Eurogiro, and acts both as a member and
as a provider of settlement services in the
community. What are your main chal-
lenges today in respect of these roles and
how do you see the value of the Eurogiro
membership for Deutsche Bank today?
Deutsche Bank is a longstanding member
of – and service provider to – the commu-
nity. This role has become of even greater
importance in light of the seismic shift in
the regulatory environment and the zero
tolerance approach to unethical behavior
and misconduct. In fact, I would consider the
main challenges of today to be that of meet-
ing the demands of the regulators, especially
when taking into account the high infrastruc-
ture cost and the low pricing of the products
and underlying schemes. Still, there is no op-
tion but full compliance, and I am confident
that, together with the community – and this
is where I see its greatest value – we can
achieve this through our combined efforts
and with transparency.
In many countries, postal orga-
nisations have an amazing share
of their home market. This asset
must not only be defended, but
also leveraged in the changing
world of payments providers
Eurogiro News
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