Deutsche Bank To Close Postbank Merger This Weekend

Deutsche Bank is slated to complete the merger of its IT platforms with Postbank customers this weekend. The planned integration might see some customers at the bank being unable to access some of the bank’s services.

Deutsche Bank to complete Postbank IT integration this weekend

Deutsche Bank is the largest bank in Germany. The bank started the process of acquiring Postbank in 2008, at a time when the global economy was hit by a financial crisis. However, since the integration was announced, Deutsche Bank has faced challenges in completing the integration.

Deutsche Bank will be taking over the millions of clients at the bank, alongside the roots that the firm has in the country’s postal sector. The fourth and final wave of the integration process will happen over the weekend.

Deutsche Bank will be transferring 4 million contracts belonging to 2 million Postbank clients to a common IT system. Following this planned integration, the customers at the bank will not have total access to all the services offered by the bank over the weekend. The bank has already alerted its customers of the service disruptions.

Deutsche Bank is currently working to reduce costs and minimize the bank’s headcount. The technology integration at the bank, which is referred to internally as project “Unity,” will ensure that the savings of 300 million euros a year will be transferred to the bank by 2025.

The Chief Executive Officer at Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing, is optimistic that Project Unity will be a success. The bank had planned to complete the integration in 2022, but it faces some challenges with the same. As such, it was formed to maintain the old systems in a move that increased costs at the bank.

After the process is complete, Deutsche Bank will have 19 million customer contracts from Postbank. These contracts will be under a single platform. Part of the savings will also come from decommissioning the software and hardware at the bank.

Deutsche Bank’s human resources head exists bank

In another unrelated development surrounding the German bank, the head of human resources, Michael Ilgner, will be exiting the bank. The exit of Ilgner from the bank is part of a series of management changes that have been announced by the bank.

This development comes amid an investigation that was conducted earlier this year into Ilgner. The investigations revolved around claims that Ilgner had bought bods at the bank a few days after the lender released its earnings report. The action was in violation of the bank’s guidelines to prevent insider trading.

Sewing praised Ilgner, noting that he was an “important” partner to the management board. The CEO said that Ilgner had shaped the bank’s human capital strategy over the past three years, creating a solid foundation for future-proof leadership and talent management.