New invoicing solution to support e-mobility: Aareal Bank announces cooperation with platform provider smart

Wiesbaden/Aachen, 8 December 2020 - Aareal Bank AG has developed an automated invoicing procedure within the scope of a partnership with smartlab Innovationsgesellschaft mbH. Being applied to e-mobility as an initial field of application, 'Aareal Connected Payments' simplifies invoice management for complex payment flows between different partners - so-called multi-party payments - on a shared platform, hence supporting the progress of e-mobility in Germany.

Simplifying invoice management

The pilot phase of this new invoicing solution will begin on the ladenetz.de platform, via which smartlab connects over 220 municipal utility companies as providers of charging points. The platform allows owners of electric cars to charge their vehicles at the charging poles of participating municipal utilities throughout Germany - using a single charging card. On the one hand, this benefits users, since it simplifies charging and settlement; on the other hand, municipal utility companies gain a significant edge: the platform solution makes settling the charging processes and payments between different companies far easier. Lars Ernst, Managing Director at Aareal Bank, elaborates: 'The cooperation with smartlab enables us to contribute our know-how regarding IT-based small-scale mass payments, applying it to a new and promising area of growth. We are thus playing a part in advancing e-mobility in Germany.'

Enhancing the efficiency of client processes

Aareal Connected Payments provides automated settlement management for third-party charging transactions in the charging network: instead of settling each transaction separately and bilaterally, the solution compresses payment flows to a minimum - all individual invoices are bundled per invoicing cycle and automatically settled via Aareal Bank as the payment service provider. The municipal utilities receive individual electronic invoices which also take tax-related particularities into account, thus ensuring full transparency on all transactions within the payment process. Therefore, the hitherto huge billing effort between municipal utilities is reduced to a minimum.

'We are delighted to be entering into a pioneering partnership with Aareal Bank, helping us to significantly increase the efficiency of client processes. Clients are left with minimum effort and costs, and we are able to focus on our core expertise, i.e. developing services surrounding e-mobility for municipal utilities and business partners,' notes Dr Mark Steffen Walcher, Managing Director of smartlab.

Adapting the solution to other platform models

Aareal Bank is already thinking ahead, planning to expand this business model to other application scenarios beyond e-mobility. Holger Spielberg, Group Technology Officer at Aareal Bank, explains: 'We are entering a highly interesting new business area with our platform solution Aareal Connected Payments; luckily, we have found the right partner in smartlab. Going forward, the solution can be adjusted to meet the requirements of other platform models in different sectors. We are at the beginning of an exciting development journey.'

For further information on Aareal Connected Payments and Aareal Bank AG's product innovations, please refer to:https://thinkfuture.aareal-bank.com/the-future-of-payment