Silverflow webinar key takeaways – Deutsche Bank case study

Irina Ionescu, Senior Editor at The Paypers, uncovers the key takeaways from the latest webinar featuring Silverflow, showcasing how Deutsche Bank future-proofed acquiring through a successful partnership.

Deutesche Bank has partnered with Silverflow to power its re-entry into acquiring and building a next-generation payments platform. The webinar – How Deutsche Bank future-proofed its acquiring with Silverflow is not only a showcase of benefits. Kilian Thalhammer, Global Head of Merchant Solutions at Deutsche Bank and Robert Kraal, Co-founder at Silverflow, dive into the real challenges, roadblocks, and tough decisions behind this partnership.

The discussion tackles why the shift from legacy processing to fintech collaboration is key to staying competitive, Deutsche Bank’s journey, the real impact of a joint go-to-market approach, and a practical guidance for banks and acquirers looking for new fintech partnerships. If you’re keen to find out more, below you can find summarised the key takeaways of this webinar.

The strategic re-entry: why Deutsche Bank returned to acquiring

Deutsche Bank’s decision to re-enter the acquiring space after more than a decade was not made lightly. Kilian Thalhammer explains that the primary driver was client demand that has evolved from a nice-to-have to an absolute expectation. Corporate clients no longer viewed payment acceptance capabilities as an optional add-on but as a fundamental requirement from their banking partners.

The bank then identified strong synergies between its existing corporate banking capabilities and payment acceptance services. With established relations spanning decades and an existing banking infrastructure in place, adding acquiring services seemed like a logical extension that could potentially shorten the value chain for clients. This integrated approach meant clients could now manage everything through a single banking relationship, contributing to liquidity management and streamlining reconciliation processes.

However, the re-entry came with significant challenges. Deutsche Bank quickly understood that it was not viable to build everything in-house. The bank also had to navigate internal complexities, educating stakeholders about the acquiring business.

The partnership with SIlverflow

The partnership between Deutsche Bank and Silverflow was successful due to its collaborative nature that transcends typical vendor-client dynamics. Both companies adopted a joint go-to market strategy with shared target lists, combined sales efforts, and transparent client engagement rather than operating in silos.

Robert Kraal emphasised how this approach has benefitted both parties, by making sure everybody understands how a product works and answering all questions coming from Deutsche Bank. This level of collaboration extends to client meetings where both teams presented together. According to both panellists, transparency builds trust with clients who appreciate knowing exactly how their payment processing will be handled.

Leveraging modern technology

Silverflow's cloud-native, API-driven platform offered Deutsche Bank capabilities that would have been difficult or impossible to achieve with legacy systems. The platform's architecture enables automatic scaling during peak periods like Black Friday, geographic expansion without extensive infrastructure investment, and rapid deployment of new features.

According to Robert Kraal, most of the legacy platforms have been designed in the 1980s or 1990s and were built with a different mindset. Since storage was expensive, these legacy platforms only kept the data that was absolutely needed. In contrast, Silverflow displays a modern architecture and treats data as a valuable asset, enabling advanced analytics, real-time monitoring, and innovative features built on top of comprehensive transaction data. This approach allows for deployment across new markets in weeks rather than months, a critical advantage in today's fast-moving payments landscape.

Mutual growth through high standards

Deutsche Bank’s rigorous compliance and security requirements strengthened Silverflow’s platform for all customers, while Silverflow’s agility helped the bank achieve faster time-to-market.

By combining acquiring services with existing corporate banking relations, clients can benefit from streamlined processes, consolidated settlements, and improved liquidity management that providers cannot offer on their own.

Moreover, to achieve global scalability, companies must have access to a modern architecture. Cloud-native platforms like Silverflow’s  enable rapid geographic expansion and automatic scaling that would otherwise be complex and expensive when using legacy systems. 

Conclusions

The partnership between Deutsche Bank and Silverflow represents more than just a successful technology implementation. Success demands a willingness to embrace new ways of working, transparency in client relationships, and the courage to challenge conventional wisdom about what constitutes a safe choice in payment processing.

As the payments industry continues to evolve with new technologies, regulations, and customer expectations, partnerships like this one show that the combination of bank stability and fintech innovation represents the optimal path forward for companies looking to future-proof their payment operations while delivering superior value to clients.

If you are keen on learning more on how successful partnerships can bring new revenue streams through payments, watch the full webinar on demand here.

 

About the author

Irina is a Senior Editor at The Paypers, primarily specialising in online payments and fraud prevention. She has a Ph.D. in Economics and a strong economic academic background, with interests in fraud prevention, chargebacks, fintech, AI, ecommerce, and online payments. Reach out to her via LinkedIn or email at irina@thepaypers.com.

 

About Silverflow

Silverflow is the new standard in payment processing, designed for today's payment needs and fit for the future. A cloud-native solution with a single API to the card networks. One platform with one connection. Reducing cost and complexity, easy to use, data-rich, Silverflow frees you to innovate.