Deutsche Bank and Ant International have entered a strategic partnership aimed at enhancing cross-border payment services for businesses of all sizes in Europe and Asia.

The agreement combines Deutsche Bank’s global network with Ant International’s digital payment technologies.

The collaboration will leverage Ant’s proprietary tokenisation capabilities and its AI-driven foreign exchange model, the Time-Series Transformer (TST) FX model, known as Falcon.

Deutsche Bank will become the first German bank to connect with Ant International’s blockchain-based real-time treasury management platform, enabling real-time fund transfers between Ant’s group entities and supporting more efficient and transparent treasury operations.

The two firms will also explore innovations in cross-border payments, including tokenised bank deposits and stablecoins, with the goal of helping Ant International and its clients reduce foreign exchange-related costs and risks.

The partnership will further examine stablecoin applications for real-time cross-border treasury management, reserve handling, and on- and off-ramp services.

Deutsche Bank will also collaborate with Antom, Ant International’s merchant services unit, to expand acquiring solutions for merchants across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Additionally, it will support WorldFirst, Ant’s digital payment platform for SMEs involved in e-commerce, by enabling access to its global network for services including account collections, payments, and foreign exchange.

Ole Matthiessen, Head of Corporate Bank APAC & MEA and Global Head of Cash Management for Deutsche Bank, said,

“We will leverage our broad product capabilities and strong global network to deliver seamless and secure payment solutions to Ant International and its customers in Europe and Asia.

Given the dynamic landscape of financial services, we see great potential to collaborate with Ant International, as one of the world’s leading financial technology providers, to develop innovative payment solutions and transform the future of treasury management.”

Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech at Ant International, said,

“With a dynamic fintech landscape, Europe is fast-becoming a key hub for global digital payment innovation.

We are pleased to deepen our commitment to the region through this collaboration with Deutsche Bank, supporting the development of more seamless, secure and inclusive cross border payment solutions.”

Featured image: (From left) Sabih Behzad, Head of Digital Assets & Currencies Transformation for Deutsche Bank, Chintan Shah, Head of Corporate Coverage for APAC & MEA at Deutsche Bank, Kriti Jain, Head of New Economy Coverage APAC and Head of New Economy Cash Solutions Sales APAC & MEA at Deutsche Bank, Leiming Chen, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ant International, Yi Zhou, CFO at Ant International, Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech at Ant International and Yanyi Liang, Head of Whale Treasury Platform at Ant International