Deutsche Bank and Mastercard expand partnership to boost digital payment innovations

By Megha Bhattacharya

Deutsche Bank and Mastercard today announced the expansion of their partnership in a bid to boost developments in digital payments for its clients. The collaboration will enable companies to offer their products and services to new customer demographics, to develop digital business models and to expand sales channels in Germany and beyond.

“The coronavirus pandemic has triggered exponential growth in corporates’ demand for digital payment solutions. Payments is the key interface between banks and their clients”, said Ole Matthiessen, Global Head of Cash Management at Deutsche Bank. “Worldwide only very few banks cover the entire spectrum of the payments area. This starts with card issuance and merchant acceptance and extends to cover payments clearing in the domestic and foreign markets as well as additional services such as currency hedging, cash flow forecasting or even fraud management services.”

Recently, Deutsche Bank and Google Cloud signed a multi-year partnership for accelerating the bank’s transition to the cloud and the ability to co-innovate new products and services. The agreement will enable the Bank to enhance the way products and services are designed and delivered. Deutsche Bank will also be able to accurately respond to client needs with the help of faster application development along with the use of advanced artificial intelligence and data analytics tools. Deutsche Bank and Google Cloud intend to selectively co-innovate with promising start-ups and fintechs and plan to make Deutsche Bank products available on Google Cloud Marketplace.

“We are combining our technological expertise with the offering and the global presence of Deutsche Bank. This is a great opportunity to create new solutions for the complex issues pertaining to payments”, says Peter Bakenecker, Divisional President Germany and Switzerland at Mastercard. “We have been collaborating for many years already and want to deepen our joint endeavours. The timing is ideal given current market developments, the imminent pandemic-induced shifts in global payments and companies’ accelerated digital transformation.”