Throughout 2017, we demonstrated significant progress in digitization across all of our divisions.
Corporate & Investment Bank
In our Corporate & Investment Bank, we took an unprecedented step by open-sourcing over 150,000 lines of code from our award-winning Autobahn platform for our investment banking clients. This step enables trading applications from different providers to use Autobahn as a shared foundation and work seamlessly with each Autobahn capability.
In addition to our open-source activities with Autobahn, we also made improvements to the Autobahn platform itself. In August 2017, we introduced Autobahn Click-to-Confirm, which allows an Autobahn client to manage FX, rates and credit trade confirmations online through a secure web-based portal. We also offer Cashflow Confirmation, which allows clients to manage derivative-related cash payments online.
We also deployed the Symphony Communication Services technology platform to the majority of Global Markets’ staff and supporting infrastructure. It is a fully deployed encrypted cloud-based collaboration platform, including a mobile app and automated workflows bots, that enhancs productivity and communication across the front office, and tech and operations teams. Symphony is owned and governed by a consortium of 20 buy- and sell-side institutions. We were a founding investor at the company launch in 2014.
In the Corporate & Investment Bank, we also established several programs focused on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions in different product areas to reduce cost, enhance client service, and improve control over key processes.
We are involved in initiatives to build our distributed ledger technology (blockchain) market infrastructure in collaboration with other banks. We were one of the first banks to participate in the Utility Settlement Coin, a blockchain-based approach for clearing and settling financial transactions between banks, with reduced risk and faster execution.
In November 2017, our Global Transaction Bank launched its SWIFT gpi service. This new digital platform offers real-time tracking of payments and same-day use of funds for corporate clients. We view gpi as addressing the real needs of clients globally. Initial feedback has shown that many transactions between continents are rapidly processed end-to-end and with full tracking capabilities.
Our Global Transaction Bank also acquired a 12.5% stake in the German trade finance start-up TrustBills. TrustBills is an online auction platform for buying and selling national and international trade receivables.
Private & Commercial Bank
Our continued investment in digital within retail and corporate banking is paying off. Of our Private & Commercial Bank’s seven million customers, more than four million bank digitally. In January 2017, we launched digital account opening in Germany, meaning new customers can open an online account in seven minutes. This facility is available to German nationals with a registered address in Germany. On August 29, 2017, we reached our “mobile moment,” the point where the majority of our customers log into their online account via a mobile device.
Through our developer portal, the bank contributes to the efficiency of the markets and allows programmers to test their ideas for digital services of the future. This collaborative approach will both help external parties and us to reduce time-to-market for new products and services for the benefit of our clients.
Our retail deposit marketplace, ZinsMarkt, has been live since May 2017 as an easy-to-use digital marketplace for fiduciary, fixed-term deposits for Private & Commercial Bank customers. Other partner banks are already offering their fixed-term deposits. ZinsMarkt was designed and developed using agile techniques, together with Deposit Solutions, a German fintech.
We also invested in digitalizing our branch network. During the last two years we equipped our advisors with around 10,000 iPads and developed several apps, the so-called Dashboard collection. This enables us to deliver advisory sessions in a state-of-the-art manner and allows us to capture digital signatures for contracts and requests, thereby reducing our paper usage.
At the end of 2017, Private & Commercial Bank launched its first artificial intelligence solution using natural language processing and built on IBM Watson technology. This allows our sales support staff to be more effective and quicker in responding to client requests and to focus more on how to create value for them.
In August 2017, Wealth Management rolled out Deutsche Wealth Online in Asia. This platform offers a full spectrum of services, allowing clients to receive portfolio information and investment-related publications and, additionally, to interact with their advisors to execute transactions. Wealth Management is further developing digital ecosystems, including the existing next-generation program (NextGen), which saw the launch of the DB NextGen App at the end of 2017.
We are also one of the leading banks in we.trade, a distributed ledger technology platform for trade finance. It allows small and medium-size enterprises using blockchain technology to manage, track, and secure domestic and international trade transactions. we.trade is a joint venture of nine banks in ten countries, and we are a shareholder.
The success of our digital solutions in the Private & Commercial Bank demonstrates the value of the Digital Factory, which we established in 2016. In this center, teams from across the business, technology, and compliance sit together and apply agile methodologies to accelerate development cycles. This has delivered multiple improvements to our retail banking mobile app quickly–essential for the fast-paced world we live in.
In 2017, Postbank focused on the digitization of its core business processes for its 13 million clients, for example in consumer finance, supporting its strategy “digital & persönlich” (digital & personal) and increasing digital efficiency. In addition, Postbank strengthened its sales channels with activities such as video identification for customer services, digital signature, and a new digital investment advisory offering.
The verimi initiative, in which we are founding members, provides cross-industry collaboration between leading German companies. This “master-key” allows customers to use a single sign-on to gain access to a range of services from collaborators and other participants. This is another example of how we deliver digital platforms to facilitate markets and make life easier for clients. Further information can be found at www.verimi.com.
Deutsche Asset Management
Deutsche Asset Management’s digital vision is to create a real-time, digital, plug-and-play environment for clients and partners. A broad range of digital initiatives are under way to drive change across the value chain–including new client acquisition, customization of investment advice, research and portfolio management, middle and back office processes, distribution, and client engagement.
In July 2017, Deutsche Asset Management added our first partner to its White-label Investing Software Engine (WISE) platform: – an investment robo-advisory service offering a discretionary portfolio management solution. This allows both our customers and other market participants to access the combined knowledge and research of over 600 fund managers and analysts. As a paperless system, this digital offering not only saves the consumption of and logistics associated with paper, it also has the potential to make CO2-intensive processing steps unnecessary (e.g. face-to-face visits at the client’s home or the client driving to the post office for identification).
Our people are critical for our digital journey. Our Deutsche Asset Management digital club movement, a design thinking journey, has enabled us to develop innovative and sustainable solutions within a short timeframe and to raise the digital literacy of our employees.
It is clear that this new standard for client convenience and self-service needs to be provided with the level of security our clients expect from us. The bank’s activities to that respect are outlined in the Information Security section of this report.