Deutsche Postbank AG has now expanded its range of trade finance services. In cooperation with Citigroup, it is now offering its corporate customers collection against documents and documentary credit.

“This is the logical complement to our foreign payment transaction services. As an institute with core competencies in payment transactions and logistics-related financial services, we can now offer export companies services with even greater payment security. Documentary payment transactions round off our offer for international key accounts, in particular for customers of Deutsche Post World Net,” underscores Stefan Jütte, Member of the Postbank Management Board responsible for corporate banking.

Postbank is offering the new products in close cooperation with Citigroup, enabling Postbank to profit from Citigroup’s experience and world-wide presence. “Citigroup has decades of experience in sales and operational processing in the trade finance sector. As the largest bank in the world, it also has the necessary world-wide presence. Deutsche Post World Net, as the world’s leading logistics service provider, and Postbank, with its approximately 360,000 corporate and business customers in Germany, are extremely well positioned for linking trade finance and logistics offers. Postbank and Citigroup – together a perfect partnership,” underscores Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi, Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup Global Transaction Services EMEA.

This March, Postbank became the first bank in Europe to introduce an Internet-based transaction platform for the processing of documentary foreign transactions together with TradeCard Inc., New York. With the newly added collection against documents and documentary credit, it can now offer classic and Internet-based documentary foreign transactions, as well as integrated overall solutions with the logistics services from DHL. In documentary credit cases, for instance, Postbank handles financing and securing of payment, while DHL handles express shipment of the documents and goods transportation all over the world. Deutsche Post World Net corporate customers are thus offered real one-stop-shopping – logistics and financial services from a single source.

Collection against documents means that importers are not given the documents needed for obtaining the supplied goods until they have paid the purchase price. The banks act as trustees in this process on the basis of international guidelines and standards. An additional security feature is added in cases of documentary credit: payment through the importer’s bank is guaranteed with presentation of documents agreed upon in advance.