Financial institutions collaborate predominantly with fintechs regarding payment solutions and credit services.

Recent strategic partnerships between German banks and fintech companies are shaping the future of digital banking services. Over the past four years, a total of 82 partnerships have been identified, with the cooperative financial group of Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken leading the pack with 37 partnerships with 14 different fintech companies [6].

Collaboration for Innovation

These partnerships are driving innovation in the payment and credit sectors, with a focus on mobile payments, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), and open banking models. Key examples include:

Deutsche Bank and Sparkasse: These two are unique among German traditional banks in offering their own mobile payment solutions, demonstrating an in-house digital strategy amid fintech disruption [1].
Commerzbank and Google Pay: Commerzbank partnered with Google Pay to provide mobile payments to its customers while offering peer-to-peer (P2P) payments independently, illustrating a hybrid approach combining fintech platforms and internal services [1].
Union Investment and LAIQON (AI subsidiary): In credit-related product innovation and asset management, Union Investment launched a joint product “WertAnlage” in cooperation with LAIQON, a fintech partner with AI capabilities, which has been positively received and contributes to growth with plans for broader rollout across cooperative bank networks [3].
Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) collaborations: Numerous German banks and fintech providers engage in BaaS partnerships, enabling banks to develop tailored credit and payment products by integrating fintech platforms that provide regulatory-compliant backend services [4].

Trends in the Fintech Sector

The fintech sector in 2025 is characterised by embedded finance and open banking, with partnerships increasingly focused on API integration to facilitate payments and lending within non-financial platforms, boosting accessibility and innovation for banks and fintechs alike [2]. Regional German banks continue partnering with fintech providers for services spanning mobile banking, credit offerings, and foreign exchange, though publicly detailed names and fintech counterparts remain sparse in current disclosures [5].

Key Players

The Deutsche Bank works together with 15 start-ups, including Bitpanda, Finanzguru, Lemon.Markets, and Upvest. Three fintech companies each come from Austria (Bitpanda, Credi2, 21Bitcoin), three from the US (Fiserv, Symphony, Flowcast), and there are cooperations with two Dutch (Silverflow, TreasurUp), Estonian (Estateguru), British (Ebury Partners), Irish (Fenergo), and Swedish (Stock Republic) companies [7].

The United Volksbank Raiffeisenbank (VVRB) from the Odenwald has the most partnerships, working with Billie, Creditshelf (now Teylor), Monkee, Nelly, Payone, Pliant, Smava, and Pagopace (a payment start-up) between 2021 and 2024 [8]. Varengold Bank is a financing partner of Fulfin and acts as a fronting bank for Banxware. Commerzbank, Volksbank Bielefeld-Guetersloh, Sparkasse Bremen, and VVRB have integrated the financing solutions of Creditshelf (now Teylor) [8].

The Future of Banking

This landscape moves towards integration and interoperability rather than pure disruption, as evidenced by the increasing number of strategic partnerships between German banks and fintech companies. The Payment Exchange 2025, an event taking place on March 12 & 13, 2025, in Berlin, will further discuss strategic partnerships in the payment sector and explore new technologies driving the industry forward [9].

Readers are encouraged to send suggestions for further cooperations to infographic@ourwebsite-url. The infographic is available for download in high resolution [10]. Additionally, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, and S-Kreditpartner offer their installment loans via the comparison platform Smava since 2020 [11]. NRW Bank uses interfaces with the municipal financers Commnex (now FRC Digital) and Komuno to incorporate its funding programs into their lending processes [12]. Fincompare and Finmatch have integrated their processes with KfW [12].

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Financial institutions collaborate predominantly with fintechs regarding payment solutions and credit services.