Deutsche is ramping up customer access in a tech move allowing customers to talk to the bank via WhatsApp, WeChat and other popular messaging services.

Deutsche Bank has become one of the first financial institutions to use Symphony Connect Solutions to bring clients and banking employees together using their preferred chat platforms, including the popular WhatsApp.

The move follows the bank successfully introducing WeChat users via Symphony’s enabling technology in November 2019.

The German lender said that adding WhatsApp to the mix has boosted access to more than 3 billion users who can “now securely and safely communicate” with its global banking teams. Bank employees are generally restricted by regulations governing what platforms they can use to communicate with clients. So, this comes at a time when clients need banks the most, Deutsche said when announcing the deal yesterday.

Symphony was established in 2014 as an open-source cloud-based messaging platform which currently serves around 510,000 users across 340 companies. Deutsche bank has invested in developing the platform over several funding rounds. It said that the technology will allow staff to communicate with clients "anytime, anywhere" securely and completely compliant.

“An important part of our technology strategy is to enable our people to securely meet our clients at a time and place of their choice, and bringing together Symphony and WhatsApp is a truly innovative way to do so,” Bernd Leukert, the bank's chief technology, data and Innovation officer, said.

In Asia, Deutsche has already backed a partnership between Symphony and the Chinese internet giant Tencent to connect its internal Symphony users to the WeChat network, and is reported to be the first financial institution to do so.