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Deutsche Bank has inaugurated its Asia Centralised Processing Centre (ACPC) in Mumbai, India. The ACPC has been set up to process trade transactions originating in Asian countries. Established as an arm of Global Trade Finance (GTF), it aims at increasing economies of scale and reducing transaction costs. This advanced processing centre will ensure that greater efficiencies are achieved in checking trade documents, which is a critical step in the trade finance business and also enables GTF to bid for large trade transaction mandates in the region.

The first phase, which will be completed by 2004, will have staff strength of about 100 employees with dedicated teams handling the processing of documents for the assigned Asian countries. Staff will have undergone high standards of training to ensure that the processing of trade documents is handled with the utmost levels of accuracy.

Staff teams will work in various shifts based on the work times of the Asian countries for which they will process documents, with the first shift starting at 05:30 am for Japan and the last shift for India specific processing.

Commenting on the inauguration Reinhard Uhl (global head, Global Trade Finance) says, “Deutsche Bank sees trade finance as a core business. The trade business operates as an integrated one-stop shop offering trade risk management, financing and technology. Our IT platform has allowed us to maximise our network. The ACPC does just that. It reinforces the Asian network and offers Deutsche Bank’s global standards of accuracy and efficient processing on a most economic basis. The ACPC is a major value-addition in our trade finance business offering.”

Amita Jhangiani (regional head, Trade Risk Services, Asia Pacific) also comments: “The ACPC is a modern day processing unit that will afford large global trade finance banks a central processing service in a country where costs are relatively low, such as India. In turn the ACPC allows them to price products competitively. Operating efficiencies will enable the ACPC to provide globally accepted standards across branches in the region.”

Douglas Neilson (chief country officer, India) adds: “At a time of increased focus on costs, and the need to maximise value for money spent, a new venture such as ACPC makes a great deal of sense and is another example of Deutsche Bank’s clear commitment to expand in India. It also combines the bank’s global strength in trade services with local Indian expertise, in an optimal way. I am very pleased at the setting up of the ACPC, and to maximising the benefit that this will add to our Asian network.”