As a result he's looking beyond the cooperative-banking sector to raise settlement volume. What's more, he said, bws Bank was open to offering an equity stake to partners from other banking groups. So far, Sal. Oppenheim is the only customer it has won outside the Deutsche Bank group. Etb has so far won Deutsche Bank mandates for securities, currency, cash and payment transactions.
Contracts usually run for between three to six years.
The last of the four major players is WPS Bank, owned by Germany's savings-bank organization. WPS has been shaken by financial problems that recently cost WestLB board member Rudolf Holdjik his job. Other banks active in transaction banking are Dresdner Bank, Commerzbank and Postbank. Bws Bank's Gissel said that he sees room for a further three transaction banks on the German market. Achim P hler, head of etb, said that he initially expects to see consolidation in the area of payment transactions in Germany.