The ten-year contract will see equensWorldline take over all Sepa instant, multi-currency, and domestic payments - equating to four billion transactions per year - on behalf of the bank, migrating legacy inhouse architecture to the equensWordline platform.

The arrival of instant payments in Europe brings with it a complex regulatory and operational burden for the banking sector.

“This partnership will allow Commerzbank to use economies of scale and it will reduce administration tasks for our sales force," says a Commerzbank spokesperson.

Michael Steinbach, managing director for financial services and CEO equensWorldline, adds: "This new relationship is a significant step for our company, providing clear evidence to the market that we are the partner of choice for processing all payments of a globally operating bank. It is also a strong signal to banks to test their operating models and explore the benefits of outsourcing their payments operations."

In a separate contract, signed earlier this year, Commerzbank will also take the unusual step for a Tier 1 bank to outsource its Swift Infrastructure to equensWorldline, based on a new partnership with Intercope and its BOX Messaging Hub.

The giant German bank is mid-way through a corporate transformation programme - dubbed Commerzbank 4.0 - that entails tens of thousands of jobs cuts and a EUR700 million a year IT and digitalisation splurge.

Christian Rhino, divisional board member, Group Banking Operations Commerzbank AG, says: “Through the purchase of “payment as a service” from equensWorldline, we have not only gained a reliable strategic partner for our company, but through this we can fully concentrate on our digitalisation and the strategic restructuring of Commerzbank 4.0.”