Deutsche Bank wins big at the GTR Awards

On 1 May 2024, Deutsche Bank was named GTR’s Best Trade Finance Bank in Western Europe and the bank’s TRAFIN 2023-1 securitised trade finance transaction won GTR’s Best Deal of 2023.

To top off an already stellar night, Daniel Schmand, Deutsche Bank stalwart and recent retiree from various senior roles in trade finance, lending, operations and institutional cash management, was presented with the prestigious GTR Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Deutsche Bank teams were delighted to be recognised by GTR as the Best Trade Finance Bank in Western Europe. Highlight transactions include:

• In partnership with the UK export credit agency, UKEF Deutsche Bank supported UK exporters for Zanzibar’s infrastructure upgrades with a EUR242m 13.5-year ECA financing
• With the support of Deutsche Bank, Knorr-Bremse AG linked its existing Supply Chain Finance program (SCF) to ESG ratings of suppliers. By providing financial incentives to promote increased sustainability among its suppliers, Knorr-Bremse is taking another decisive step towards creating more sustainable value chains.
• Deutsche Bank issued the fifth iteration of the TRAFIN securitisation programme (see below)

“We are delighted to have won Best Trade Finance Bank in Western Europe and Best Deal of Year at this year’s GTR Awards. It follows a busy year for the bank, where we have supported clients in Europe across the full spectrum of trade finance instruments,” said Oliver Resovac, Global Co-Head of Trade Finance & Lending at Deutsche Bank.

He added, “Although it is just Western Europe, the corridors are getting more important. It is a global achievement for us to have been awarded Best Bank in that context. Thanks not only to the Western Europe team but globally to the team’s collaboration across the corridors, which is super important as our clients are global.”

Deutsche Bank was also awarded GTR’s Best Deal of 2023 for its synthetic trade finance Significant Risk Transfer (SRT) securitisation, TRAFIN 2023-1. This is the fifth iteration of the trade finance synthetic securitisation, with a notional of US$3.5bn and added feature of being STS (simple-transparent-standardised) under ECB regulations.

“It has been a great collaboration across several teams in the Corporate Bank and Investment Bank over the past year to get it over the line. We are very happy to have won this award given its complexity and value,” said Bhaswati Malik, Head of Portfolio & Alternate Derisking.

“The continuation of this landmark securitisation programme allows our trade finance business to originate a greater volume of transactions in the space, which, in turn, is helping us to power the real economy and develop local communities,” concluded Guenther Poettler, Global Head of Cross- Product Structuring.

To learn more about this winning transaction, see our news story published shortly after the deal was closed in 2023 here.

After 36 years with Deutsche Bank, this year Daniel Schmand has taken the decision to retire. His visionary leadership and passion for a form of finance that keeps global trade flowing have not only shaped trade finance practices, but also influenced a whole generation of professionals. The GTR Lifetime Achievement award is testament to Schmand’s impressive legacy and outstanding contribution to the industry.

Having joined Deutsche Bank as a Lehrling – an apprentice – at the Reutlingen branch in Baden-Württemberg, Schmand rose through the ranks, holding the role of Global Head of Trade Finance & Lending at Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank for more than six years.

Collecting his prize Schmand thanked industry colleagues – with the parting quip, “you can take Daniel Schmand out of trade finance, but you cannot take trade finance out of Daniel Schmand”.

Main picture, from left: Vathany Vijayaratna, Christoph Woermann, Zak Chaudary, Oliver Gehbauer, Panayiotis Stergiou, Daniel Schmand, Bhaswati Mallik, Olivier Amblard, Oliver Resovac, Jason Connery, Guenther Poettler, Clarissa Dann, Abhishek Kapur, Peter Gubbins (GTR)