Deutsche expands cash and FX offering

Deutsche Bank is expanding its cash management services in Asia as part of efforts to capitalise on trade flows in the region. The bank has established three new global cheque processing hubs in Singapore, Jakarta and Tokyo, bringing the total to nine in the region.

The broader offering provides clients with more options for their US dollar cheque deposits and removes the need to physically transport paper cheques, the bank says.

"We are benefiting from rising Asian trade flows as many transactions are still cleared in US dollars,” says John Ball, regional head of cash management, financial institutions Asia-Pacific, within the global transaction banking division at Deutsche Bank.

“We are a US dollar provider in terms of clearing services but we are also seeing a substantial increase in euro transactions within Asia; many of those transactions are also intra-Asia. We can execute and finalise a payment in dollars or euros in the Asian time zone so we don't have to wait for the US or Europe to open to be able to execute and finalise those transactions."

The bank has additional cheque processing hubs in Bangkok, Colombo, Hong Kong, Manila, Mumbai and Taipei.

Deutsche Bank has also recently implemented SWIFTNet FileAct capabilities for its cross-currency payments solution, FX4Cash.

The service provides corporate and bank clients with greater choice in managing their cross-currency payments, according to the bank. Financial institutions and corporations can use the service to make payments across 75 currencies.

“We see advantages for those clients in terms of efficiencies and the ability to control nostro accounts and also to share in the FX earnings,” adds Ball.

“In our cheque processing services, we have also given clients flexibility by enabling them to process transactions themselves, scan the instruments and send us images. Alternatively we can take their cheques into one of our several cheque processing hubs in Asia; we will transmit the images to the US or Europe where these items will be cleared and paid.”