Deutsche Bank buys into Hamburg-based fintech firm Deposit Solutions

Deutsche Bank has become a new shareholder of Deposit Solutions GmbH, the two companies announced today. Deutsche Bank has acquired a 4.9% stake in the Hamburg-based fintech company.

Via this investment, Deutsche Bank aims to benefit from the expected growth in valuation of Deposit Solutions.

The two companies have a history of collaboration. Deutsche Bank already operates its “Zinsmarkt” deposit offering using technology supplied by Deposit Solutions. Since 2017 Zinsmarkt has enabled Deutsche Bank customers to access fixed-term deposit products from other European banks that pay higher interest. Deutsche Bank is pursuing two goals with Zinsmarkt: offering clients alternative investment opportunities in addition to the bank’s own products and at the same time increasing its fee income from the deposit business, particularly during a period of sustained low interest rates.

Zinsmarkt as well as the cooperation with Deposit Solutions are elements of Deutsche Bank’s platform strategy. Currently, Deutsche Bank’s Zinsmarkt can be used by Deutsche Bank customers and online broker Maxblue clients. The bank now intends to open it up to a wider range of clients within Deutsche Bank Group.

To date, around EUR 2 billion of deposits have already been transmitted via Zinsmarkt. It currently offers more than 23 fixed-term deposit products with different maturities from three banks. Two additional banks are due to be added in the near future.

Besides Deutsche Bank, nearly 100 other banks from 18 countries are using the Deposit Solutions platform either to offer their clients deposit products from third-party banks or to source deposits for their balance sheet. Deposit Solutions is growing internationally. In early 2019, Deposit Solutions launched in Switzerland as the first market outside the European Union, and, in the coming months, the United States is set to follow.

Tim Sievers, CEO and founder of Deposit Solutions, said:

“With our open banking platform we are building the infrastructure for the deposits business of the future. The investment of Deutsche Bank is a milestone for us in two respects. Firstly, the expansion of our platform to include other Deutsche Bank businesses in Germany and abroad will help us grow even faster. Secondly, for the first time a client of ours becomes a shareholder of the infrastructure they use.”