Deutsche Postbank AG is looking at expanding its business model in Transaction Banking into Europe in 2008. This was announced to journalists in London by Dr. Mario Daberkow, Managing Director of "Services" at the Bonn-based bank. "With total revenue of EUR 10 billion, the European payments market is extremely interesting for a specialized settlement service provider like Postbank," said Daberkow. Previously, it had not been possible to enter this market because the different payment systems of the European national states prevented settlement in line with uniform standards. The harmonization of European payment transactions as a result of SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area) from 2008 should create the right conditions to allow us to offer services outside of Germany as well. Depending on the SEPA products we actually see being used in Europe, Postbank will be offering Transaction Banking services.

For this purpose, Postbank intends to establish a SEPA-compatible transaction platform based on SAP in 2008, which will include global payments beyond SEPA's borders, a multi-user enabled archive and multi-user enabled access systems in addition to SEPA transactions. Parallel to developing the technical platform, analysts in Bonn are also looking at various entry models for European business, including joint ventures with international partners, equity investments and mergers as well as opportunities for internally generated growth.
 
Today, Postbank already settles around 20% of German and 5% of European payment transactions each year. In settlements for German banks (including its own payments), Postbank increased the number of its transactions by 15% year-on-year to 7.2 billion transactions (extrapolated for 2007) and increased its market share by almost a quarter to 20%. The earnings before taxes of the "Transaction Banking" segment rose by 40% as against the same period of the previous year to EUR 18 million in the first half of the year.