Deutsche Bank and startups. Not a love story.

Indeed, a Neapolitan tragedy.

This is a true story. The following analysis was made in Italy, and may not apply for other countries where Deutsche Bank operates.

Well, we founded our Startup in Milan.

We decided to open the bank account at Deutsche Bank (DB) for the following two reasons:

1. DB has a very high rating over all other banks operating in Italy. It is not that we were about to give them such a great amount of cash that we thought about a bank default, but we thought that this could be a very positive factor.
2. DB has very high equality policy. They even recently received a 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index in 2014.

Whatever good DB has ends here. Everything else is downhill.

Here it is:

Extra documentation

To open the bank account they wanted a record of the Board that specified that I was the CEO. This step is unnecessary because it is already clearly specified on a notarized document and signed by all the members present during the Foundation of the company. This was to have mathematical certainty that I was really the CEO with full powers to open the bank account.

In addition, we went to the Bank two days after signature by the notary, which means that there would not even be the time it takes to change the administrator for the following reason: in order to officially record the change of CEO, the company needs the Corporate Books (Libri Societari). And to officially open the books, the company must be fully registered at the Chamber of Commerce and other competent offices.

So we had to wait a week to fulfill all necessary steps.

Online banking updated in the 90s

The DB has an online banking system called DB Interactive. Now, we create applications and websites, then it is normal for us to create and use elegant and functional interfaces, so we have higher standards when it comes to user experience. But, the DB Interactive negatively surprised us. For completeness I enclose a screenshot below. Judge for yourself.

Deutsche Bank DB Interactive

You can’t make international wire transfers

Or rather, you can’t make it from the beginning. Read here, it’s so tragic, that is almost funny. We had to make a bank transfer to our supplier in the United States. I log into the DB Interactive, I open the screen Credit, and do not see any option to select the receiving country. Then I think, well, it will be like on Banca Intesa -another Italian bank- online banking, where foreign transfers are on another link. So I try to look for the other link, but cannot find it. Then I call Filippo, one of the partners:

— Filippo, I can’t find where i make wire transfers on the online banking. Could you please check yourself, before I call myself the Bank and look like a moron?

— Ok, I'll do it now, but it seems impossible to me that you can't make them from the internet. All banks allow that!

Well, Filippo checks and tells me that even he can't find the link. Then I call customer service to ask them. They answer:

— Yes, of course you can make foreign wire transfers. Check better the website!

Ok, now I really feel like a moron. But still failing to find the link, I try to send Filippo in the subsidiary saying to be shown by the bank employee how to make foreign wire transfers. And here it comes the reply by the employee:

— Oh, but you can't make foreign wire transfers, you have to physically come to the bank to make them. To make transfers abroad we must activate you the DB Corporate Banking Web.

This thing is tragic for two reasons:

1. This means that the DB does not allow consumer customer to make international wire transfers. Tragic for all the people, like me, who always travel and often make transfers abroad.
2. In 2014, where globalization is so ingrained that the word itself has nearly lost it’s meaning, it is not possible that a company cannot make transfers abroad. What kind of companies has DB in his portfolio? Pino with its tobacco shop, which pays only Italian suppliers? (With all respect to the tobacconists)

Then, okay, I say to the bank employee, “activate this fricking DB Corporate Banking”. Reply:

— Oh, to enable the Corporate Banking, we first must carry out the checks on your company. It will take a month or so. In addition to the activation, the Corporate Banking fee is about 5€ more per month.

Crazy wire transfer fees

When we were able to make this wire, we check and see 25 € of Commission for transfer to the United States. Yes, you read that right: 25 €. I immediatly call the bank:

— Excuse me, but is it possible that we paid 25 € for a wire transfer? I mean, it was to the US, not to an African country which must pass through 30 correspondent banks…

— Sorry, these are the commissions.

— Can we get a discount? We operate only on the web and we make many small transfers of low amounts. With these commissions we cannot go ahead. If you don't lower the price we’ll have to change bank.

— I would need to have a forecast of the number of transfers and amounts you think you’ll have, so I can send the request to the Headquarters to request a discount.

— Excuse me, how can I give you a precise evaluation if we founded the company 10 days ago? If give you a prediction now, it would not be reliable.

— Well, then when you are gonna have it, contact me again, so we can talk about it.

Complicated and long credit card management

Because we operate on the internet we have requested a credit card. But even here there are steps and procedures which make the whole thing complicated.

1. The credit card’s management takes place in a different online panel, the Deutsche Bank Easy. The name is probably a joke decided by the creators of the portal. So, we had to create another username and password. This may seem trivial, but according to a good corporate security management, you should change all the passwords at least once a month, and have an additional account increases the time of corporate security management.
2. The credit card top up must be made via wire transfer to a special account with special codes. Unlike other banks where is completed in 3 clicks.
3. But what is most tragic is that because of the transfer, the top up is not instantaneous, but it takes 2-3 business days. In other banks is instantaneous. This means that if we have a sudden expense to pay on the internet and the credit is not enough, we have to wait 2-3 days to make. This has delayed us abut a week because some of our suppliers work only payed in advance.

Conclusion

If you have just founded a Startup do not contact Deutsche Bank to open your business account. After that all these things happened in just one month since the opening of the account, we have decided to change bank.

The Deutsche Bank slogan is Passion to perform.

I would rather change it to Passion to underperform.

PS: The startup is Yolo Apps. We build iPhone and Android apps.