Postbank will take over an additional 277 Deutsche Post retail outlets located across Germany to complement the bank’s network of approximately 850 finance centers. Both parties have concluded an agreement covering this.
According to Postbank, these new bank branches will increase the focus on banking services in a change that will expand the assistance and advisory capacities available to Postbank customers. The branches will also offer Deutsche Post’s complete range of products.
Over the mid-term, Postbank intends to add services involving personal infrastructure, including electricity and natural gas contracts or telecommunication offerings, to the new branches’ product line.
In addition, Postbank intends to support at least 1,000 partner retail outlets of Deutsche Post that offer the financial services of Postbank as premium partners.
The agreement between Postbank and Deutsche Post with regard to the takeover of the branches does not constitute a purchase in the traditional sense. A purchase price therefore will not be paid. In fact the branches have been taken over by Postbank within a long-term cooperation agreement. Postbank will also assume the leases of the affected locations. Postbank and Deutsche Post have agreed that the employees, just like at other partner branches, will remain part of Deutsche Post’s workforce.
Hans-Peter Schmid, the management board member at Postbank who oversees the branches, said: “Postbank provides its customers with an access network that is unique in Germany in terms of its diversity and numbers. While other banks are closing branches to cut costs, we are further expanding our network at our own locations to better serve our customers, and we are doing it in both metropolitan areas and rural regions.”
Jurgen Gerdes, board of management member responsible for Mail at Deutsche Post, said: “This new cooperation offers advantages for all parties involved. The new cooperation allows both companies to exploit the synergies within our partner model and therefore to offer their respective brands of customer service with economic efficiency.”