Deutsche Bank Digitizes Signatures For Corporates

Deutsche Bank is introducing digital signature capabilities for its corporate customers in an effort to accelerate account openings and other processes, the German bank announced late last week.

In an announcement, Deutsche said it is implementing eSignature solutions provider DocuSign to integrate digital signing capabilities. Document management and contract signing is one of the largest friction-points for the interaction between banks and corporate customers, the financial institution (FI) said, and digitizing the signature process can address much of that friction.

The tool can be used to open new accounts or buy products from the banks, as well as to sign any documents as part of processes of current banking operations. The feature is currently available to corporate customers in the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Deutsche said it plans to roll out its digital signature capabilities into the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions next year.

“Digital signatures enable us to accelerate the entire client onboarding and contract management process,” said Martin Runow, Deutsche Bank’s global head of client connectivity products at its Global Transaction Banking unit.

U.S.-based Honeywell is the first corporate to pilot the solution, the announcement noted.

“In an increasingly digital working environment, we are always looking to our banking partners to help us enhance efficiencies and further digitize processes,” said Honeywell’s Marie-Astrid Dubois, assistant treasurer of EMEA and Asia,  in a statement. “Deutsche Bank’s new digital signature solution is a good example of how banks can introduce new technology to enhance existing banking partnerships. This solution is a nice and obvious fix to the otherwise cumbersome collection of wet signatures.”

Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank said it would be trimming its corporate services through the divestment of its corporate banking unit in Portugal.

Last year, DocuSign launched its payments solution in the U.K., a tool that enables businesses to collect both payments and signatures through a single platform.