Deutsche Enables Instant SEPA Payments Within Treasurers’ ERP Platforms

Deutsche Bank is collaborating with financial software company Serrala to roll out an API interface aimed at linking corporate treasurers across Europe with real-time payments access.

New reports in DerTreasurer this week said the companies have launched the API interface, which links corporate customers to SEPA instant payments as part of the Serrala FS2 Payments for SAP solution. The offering integrates into a corporate customer’s SAP ERP platform, the companies explained, and aims to accelerate treasury and business workflows.

Deutsche and Serrala said their solution is the first in the market to enable businesses to initiate real-time payments from directly within their SAP ERP systems. Typically, companies that wish to use the SEPA system to pay their employees, vendors and business partners must rely on banks’ proprietary systems and cannot initiate transactions from within their ERP systems.

Deutsche has championed real-time payments for corporate treasurers in the past, releasing a report last year that predicted real-time treasury will be a result of the financial services industry’s faster payments path. However, real-time liquidity has so far not been a reality for most corporate treasurers.

“One of the difficulties currently is that motivation amongst some industry participants is relatively limited,” the company said in its report, “Preparing for real-time liquidity,” in reference to the ongoing limited adoption of the functionality. “After all, high levels of market liquidity, and relatively limited use of real-time payments so far, may suggest that shifting intraday liquidity and collateral management requirements [do] not need to be a major issue for banks.”

Yet the industry is shifting in how financial institutions manage their daily liquidity, in part thanks to adoption of faster and real-time payments, Deutsche noted.

“The first step to achieving real-time liquidity capabilities will be industry-wide conversation, be it through forums, advocacy or continued dialogue with regulatory bodies,” said Vanessa Manning, Deutsche Bank’s head of liquidity and investment for global transaction banking, in a statement at the time.