Latest news with #OleMatthiessen
Business Wire
10-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Deutsche Bank and Ant International Announce Strategic Partnership to Provide Integrated Cross-Border Payment Solutions to Global Merchants
SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Deutsche Bank and Ant International have announced their strategic partnership to provide more comprehensive payment solutions for businesses of all sizes in Europe and Asia, by combining their expertise and leveraging Ant International's proprietary tokenisation and AI-based FX technology. The bank will collaborate with Ant International's Embedded Finance unit on a series of global treasury management and cross-border payment innovations, including tokenised deposits, stablecoin, and its Time-Series Transformer (TST) FX Model. Deutsche Bank will be the first German bank to facilitate Ant International's blockchain-based real-time treasury management platform to enable real-time fund transfers between Ant International's intragroup entities. This will enable more efficient and transparent global treasury management for Ant. In addition, the two sides will also explore cross-border payment innovations, including tokenised bank deposits, stablecoin and Ant International's Falcon TST FX Model, to help Ant International and its clients reduce FX-related cost and risks. Both companies will also further look into the applications of stablecoins for global payments, including real-time cross-border treasury management for Ant's entities, reserve management and on-ramp and off-ramp services. Deutsche Bank will also work with Antom, a merchant payment and digitisation services provider, to scale up their collaboration to extend Antom's acquiring solutions for merchants in EMEA, enabling them to be seamlessly integrated with more payment solutions. The bank will also support WorldFirst's suite of payments-related solutions for SMEs in e-commerce and cross-border trade, including but not limited to account collections, payments and FX services. It will also enable the account and financial service provider to access its global network to serve its clients. Ole Matthiessen, Head of Corporate Bank APAC & MEA and Global Head of Cash Management for Deutsche Bank, said: 'We are delighted to strategically cooperate with Ant International. We will leverage our broad product capabilities and strong global network to deliver seamless and secure payment solutions to Ant International and its customers in Europe and Asia. Given the dynamic landscape of financial services, we see great potential to collaborate with Ant International, as one of the world's leading financial technology providers, to develop innovative payment solutions and transform the future of treasury management.' Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech at Ant International, said: 'With a dynamic fintech landscape, Europe is fast-becoming a key hub for global digital payment innovation. We are pleased to deepen our commitment to the region through this collaboration with Deutsche Bank, supporting the development of more seamless, secure and inclusive cross border payment solutions. By combining our digital and payment capabilities with a global leading financial institution, we aim to deliver enhanced payment experiences that meet the evolving needs of global businesses and consumers.' Expanding on a client relationship that has been in place since 2019, the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on June 8 in Munich, Germany to deepen the strategic collaboration. About Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank provides retail and private banking, corporate and transaction banking, lending, asset and wealth management products and services as well as focused investment banking to private individuals, small and medium-sized companies, corporations, governments and institutional investors. Deutsche Bank is the leading bank in Germany with strong European roots and a global network. About Ant International With headquarters in Singapore and main operations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, Ant International is a leading global digital payment, digitisation and financial technology provider. Through collaboration across the private and public sectors, our unified techfin platform supports financial institutions and merchants of all sizes to achieve inclusive growth through a comprehensive range of cutting-edge digital payment and financial services solutions. To learn more, please visit About Antom Ant International's Antom is the leading payment and digitisation services provider for merchants around the world. It offers unified merchant payment solutions to serve businesses of all sizes. Antom supports merchants to integrate over 300 payment methods, enabling them to connect with consumers in more than 200 markets, with the flexibility to accept payments in more than 100 currencies. Beyond payments, it provides digital marketing solutions and merchant digitisation services to help merchant streamline operations and enhance customer engagement. To learn more, please visit About WorldFirst WorldFirst offers cross-border payments and treasury services through its global business account, empowering growth for SMEs in e-commerce, trade, and the broad platform economy. WorldFirst simplifies key financial operations, including international payments, collections, currency conversions, and treasury management, all in a one-stop account. Leveraging the technological strengths of its parent company Ant International, WorldFirst delivers industry-leading transaction security and reliability. WorldFirst has supported over one million customers, enabling payments in 100+ currencies across more than 200 countries and regions. Learn more about WorldFirst at
Irish Post
04-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Post
Two Irish fintech companies announce major new international partnerships
TWO Irish fintech (financial technology) companies have announced major new international partnerships at a global industry conference, highlighting Ireland's growing influence in the worldwide fintech landscape. The announcements were made on the opening day of Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam on Tuesday as Ireland continues its rapid expansion in the fintech sector. Enterprise Ireland, Europe's third most active fintech investor, heralded the announcements as an example of Ireland's strong position within the industry. "These announcements today demonstrate the continued momentum of Ireland's fintech sector, which has defied the market backdrop and performed extremely well, increasingly attracting international attention and investment," said Anna-Marie Turley, Head of Enterprise Ireland's fintech and financial services portfolio. Partnerships TransferMate, the world's leading provider of embedded B2B payments infrastructure as a service (IaaS), announced a strategic long-term partnership with Deutsche Bank. It will see the Irish company work with Deutsche Bank in various countries, enabling TransferMate to provide in-country collections, cross-border payments and the ability to store funds locally. "We look forward to this journey together, which will drive TransferMate's growth and improve their operational efficiencies through our tailored solutions," said Ole Matthiessen of Deutsche Bank. Splink, a provider of custom digital payment solutions, announced an exclusive commercial Irish partnership with Global Payments to commercialise their Stadia and Events Technology in Ireland. The technology is currently in use at major British venues including Chelsea's Stamford Bridge and Newcastle's St James' Park. "We've had some recent successes together with key merchant wins in Ireland and the UK and we've excited to see the partnership grow," said Tom Woods of Global Payments. The deal will also see Splink become one of a select group of partners launching Global Payments' new SoftPOS technology, GPTom, which enables any smartphone to accept tap-to-pay transactions with no external hardware. 'Remarkable evolution' Over 20 Irish fintech companies are participating at Money20/20 Europe this year and will be showcased at the Irish Pavilion. "The strong presence of Irish fintech at Money20/20 Europe reflects the sector's remarkable evolution, becoming global leaders in their own right, securing major partnerships with global payment giants and financial institutions and launching cutting-edge AI solutions that are transforming customer experiences," said Ms Turley. Among the Irish delegation is Prommt, which announced a major milestone in Open Banking adoption on Tuesday. The firm revealed that one of Britain's top pre-owned prestige car supermarkets collected over £60m via Prommt's Pay by Bank technology within 60 days of going live. "With over 400 industry leading merchants now live with Pay by Bank and hundreds of millions in payment volume already processed this year, Prommt is leading the next generation of payment innovation," said CEO Donal McGuinness. Meanwhile, Engage Hub, which automates companies' communication services, announced the launch of its AI Knowledge Base, allowing users to find accurate answers instantly without agent support. "This reduces pressure on contact centres, cuts operational costs, and boosts overall efficiency," said Karen Waters, Product and Marketing Director at Engage Hub.
South China Morning Post
31-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong regains favour as companies and investors turn to China and yuan: Deutsche Bank
Hong Kong's corporate activity and yuan-driven business have been revitalised as global market participants strengthen ties to China's economy amid tariffs and geopolitical tensions, according to a senior executive at Deutsche Bank. Companies and investors have increased their exposure to China and hedged against the US dollar as they adjusted their supply chains and portfolios amid market volatility, said Ole Matthiessen, head of corporate banking for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, during a briefing in Hong Kong last week. 'We are seeing market participants across the corporate and institutional sectors thinking about hedging against risks' amid once-in-a-decade volatility in the foreign-exchange market, said Singapore-based Matthiessen, who is also the global head of cash management for the German lender. This volatility included significant US dollar depreciation against Asian currencies and fluctuating interest rates influenced by the economic outlook, tariffs and geopolitical tensions, he said. 'As part of that thinking, the discussion of the [yuan] as a world currency has resurfaced and grown stronger as a trend,' he said. Corporate and individual clients were keen to 'adopt a currency to keep their wealth for value preservation and risk-management reasons'. The trend was amplified as Chinese firms accelerated their global expansion plans, further leveraging Hong Kong's financial and investment resources, he added. Matthiessen said many corporate clients that previously retreated from Hong Kong in favour of Singapore were reconsidering their dual-hub structures. These companies – in industries such as logistics and consumer products that relied on procurement and supply chains in China – recognised 'Hong Kong's value as a connected global gateway and its direct links to mainland China', he said. 'It is a healthy trend that underscores the importance of Hong Kong in the global arena for export and import activities, particularly as mainland Chinese companies pursue their global ambitions.'
