Kas Bank and Deutsche WertpapierService Bank (dwpbank) have signed contracts to develop a European securities processing platform for retail banking. As part of the long term strategic partnership agreement, the partners will enter into a 50/50 joint venture to establish and sell securities processing services, starting in the Netherlands.
The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed between the two organizations in May. The newly created company will be set up at the end of 2012 and aims to become market leader in providing retail securities processing services in The Netherlands by the end of 2018. In the second phase of this joint venture, service solutions will be expanded to other European markets. By jointly developing this specialized infrastructural service, a potential market of approximately 6 million accounts in The Netherlands can be developed and automated, said a joint press release from the organizations.
As part of this cooperation, dwpbank will establish a branch in Amsterdam for securities processing. Approximately 150 Kas Bank securities specialists will relocate to the branch in 2015 to broaden the necessary technical expertise and market knowledge in the branch, therefore enabling the migration of Kas Bank’s processing volumes and services to dwpbank.
The partnership with dwpbank will support Kas Bank to optimize its growth opportunities in Germany, said a joint press release from the companies. Therefore dwpbank is offering technical and structural support to Kas Bank to address wholesale securities services to the institutional clients of dwpbank and German financial institutions. By combining their respective expertise both organizations will be in a position to offer and further develop an extended range of wholesale and value added services geared towards the German institutional client base.
Albert Rell, chairman of the managing board of Kas Bank, says: Kas Bank and dwpbank are two specialist institutions both in retail and in wholesale banking, each with a pure play strategy and an infrastructural footprint in their home markets. They will collaborate on mutual strengths, sharing a common vision on the European harmonization of the securities processing market. Comparable to the payment sector, the new European retail securities platform will implement all current and future European securities regulations thereby reducing operational risk and costs for banks across Europe.
Markus Walch, chairman of the board of dwpbank, says: The partnership will strengthen dwpbanks and Kas Bank’s pivotal position in the European securities infrastructure. Based on the already existing and successful IT-platform of dwpbank, together we are building the European infrastructure for a stronger and more efficient securities industry.
(JDC)