Published: October 01, 2009
Since the end of last year, Pontus Ljungh has been responsible for Cash Management Corporates Sales at Deutsche Bank in the Nordics. Prior to embarking on this role he spent 10 years in Frankfurt with Deutsche Bank within Product Management, responsible for the global EDI platform, and was involved in several large sales projects. As the EuroFinance Cash and Treasury Management Conference moves to Copenhagen, Denmark this year, we talk to Pontus about his role in the Nordics and Deutsche Bank’s regional strategy.
Companies in the Nordic region, some of the world’s largest players, have significant transaction banking needs and consequently, this is an important area for development for Deutsche Bank. Three years ago, Deutsche Bank started building up its transaction banking team locally and during this time, has made considerable progress with large corporates mandating us with cash management deals. We are continuing to increase our on-the-ground presence every year. I was delighted to become involved in the Nordic business for Deutsche Bank, combining my knowledge of the bank, and our products and services, with my Nordic background.
Deutsche Bank Stockholm employs local people with specific regional expertise, who are close to customers and can therefore take a more hands-on approach to understanding customer issues and developing solutions. The clients have responded well to Deutsche Bank’s build-up of the local organisation. We have dedicated resources across sales, support, implementation and relationship management, providing local language services. The customers we work with here frequently require pan-European or global solutions, so we take advantage of Deutsche Bank’s geographic reach and product depth to construct and deliver appropriate solutions, with the advantage that these can be co-ordinated through the office here in Stockholm.
Nordic companies are amongst the most sophisticated organisations in the world, with demanding cash management needs across the globe. This is generally outside the scope of the regional banks, so we position ourselves as a provider that can help these customers to achieve their cash management requirements outside the region. The need to be close to the customer’s decision centre is key and thus the decision to extend the team locally. I would also like to stress the importance and strength of the Nordic co-operation between all areas of Deutsche Bank when working with clients in order to optimise the overall relationship.
In many ways, we act as our customers’ ‘eyes and ears’ in the countries where they operate. We act as local advisers but tap into a wealth of resource and knowledge across the Deutsche Bank network, with the help of local specialists from the Sales, Implementation and Customer Support organisation. We act as a thought leader and help to devise solutions that satisfy head office requirements, such as setting up shared service centres, or extending solutions to, for example, Asia whilst working in conjunction with the local needs of the business and the regulatory environment.
We also act as an information provider and arrange, e.g., ‘Meet the Expert’ sessions in the Nordics based on the challenges and needs of our corporate customers. Large Nordic corporates have a high level of centralisation with the global decision making mandate and that is why we see strong demand for information about other regions such as US and Asia.
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In many ways, of course, corporations headquartered in the Nordics are experiencing the same challenges and priorities as those in every other part of the world: the need to maintain liquidity and manage risk. Similarly too, Nordic companies are seeking to rationalise their banking relationships to achieve maximum cash management efficiency, whilst maintaining sufficient diversification to mitigate their counterparty risk. In the Nordics, however, companies have fewer choices of banks that have the necessary capabilities in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas, whilst still maintaining a local presence and relationship. This has been an important factor in the development of Deutsche Bank’s business over recent years.
Aligned with business growth in the coming years, Global Transaction Banking will further increase the number of people working in Relationship Management and Cash Management as well as in Trade Finance.
Our goal is to provide Nordic corporates with cash management solutions that suit their global needs.
In Cash Management, Helena Nordegren joined the team as Senior Sales Manager at the beginning of the year. She has nearly 10 years of Cash Management experience with both international banks as well as within corporate treasury functions.
Mikaela Gröndahl, Head of Implementations Nordics, has been based in the Nordics for the last two years and involved in several very successful implementations in the region. Previously she headed up the Implementations team in London from where the Nordic region was covered in the past.
One of our primary focus areas is on delivering implementation excellence; after all, with some projects extending across multiple countries and with increasing integration complexity, the importance of the implementation experience is evident and something we have noticed that clients put more and more emphasis on even at an RFP stage.
We will continue to invest in delivering solutions across all the regions in which Deutsche Bank operates, and provide a robust and secure service to customers whose concern over counterparty risk has heightened over the past year or so.
Our goal is to provide Nordic corporates with cash management solutions that suit their global needs. We have successfully positioned ourselves as a global provider and having the advantage of not accepting government money, we are free to make our investments as we wish. Whereas many banks have been forced to concentrate purely on their domestic markets, Deutsche Bank has pushed ahead with investments that are regional or global – in line with client demands.
Our aim is to continue to create innovative solutions to help corporates maximise efficiency and generate revenues. Most notable among these were FX4Cash – our new offering for repetitive cross-currency payments – and Deutsche Card Services, a pan-European merchant acquiring solution. And we will continue to take a leading role in promoting the benefits of SEPA. Our strategy is to make the long-term opportunities of SEPA an immediate reality for clients. In this respect, Deutsche Bank has invested in its SEPA engine which has been successful for SEPA credit transfers and is fully operational for the forthcoming SEPA direct debits.
How Thought Leadership Can Reduce the Cost of Sales by Patrik Havander, Havander & Partners A focused attention on the costs incurred by the global sales and marketing processes is becoming increasingly important for corporate banks and their transaction banking departments. While the client/bank relationship remains vital, research has shown that in fact relationship selling […]
