Citi’s commitment to its customers, to innovation and to unveiling new products that adapt to the shifting needs and expectations of corporates and regulators put it easily ahead of its rivals this year.
The US bank is a rare example of a big financial institution that knows how to innovate at scale. It is undeniably the region’s leading provider of supply-chain finance solutions, with 44 programmes in seven countries, supporting around 700 suppliers. Building on its platform, it unveiled its first range of sustainable supply-chain financing services in 2021.
“What we have seen over the past two and a half years, is that working-capital finance is not just a nice option to have but a critical requirement for corporates, which also addresses key performance indicators like ESG [environmental, social and governance],” says Yusuf Ali Khan, head of trade and working capital solutions for the Middle East, north Africa and Pakistan.
Citi also extended its Electronic Trade Loans platform last year to 71 countries; the expanded list now includes Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE, enabling rapid and digital access to loans to facilitate global trade and manage working capital. With the challenges facing global supply chains since the start of the Covid pandemic, reducing the friction in trade finance and increasing its efficiency has never been more vital.
CitiDirect, an online banking channel that connects millions of beneficiaries using just their mobile phone number, allows suppliers to “go direct to our platform to decide on rates and discounts,” says Khan. “This type of automation means better governance by reducing the manual handling and movement of paper.”
The bank is also steadily stitching together digital services that make life easier for clients. It offers instant payments in the UAE and Jordan, and it expects to go live in Egypt in late 2022.
Citi’s Liquidity Management offering drives operational resilience through fee and interest optimization capabilities and, in the UAE, cross-currency pooling to minimize risks and optimize local, regional and global pooling structures. That gives multinationals cash flow visibility in key markets across the region.
Moreover, the US bank is looking to add services, to innovate digitally and to expand its footprint.
“Other banks are rationalizing in this area; we are here and growing and committed,” notes Steven Buonvino, head of corporate and public sector sales, treasury and trade solutions, Middle East and north Africa. “There are clients such as food delivery firms that only operate digitally. If you can’t serve them through a fully digital solution, integrated via APIs [application programming interfaces] with their apps, they won’t bank with you.”
What we have seen over the past two and a half years, is that working-capital finance is not just a nice option to have but a critical requirement for corporates
Yusuf Ali Khan
The US bank has a referral model with Egypt’s PaySky, which offers last-mile e-commerce and digital payments solutions, and with Fawry, another Cairo-based provider of digital consumer and corporate financial services.
During the awards period, it entered into a partnership with Mindgate, a financial technology firm that specializes in digital overlay services, helping clients to pay customs and other duties in real time.
In the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Citi offers a full range of services, including the ability to centralize receivables in a tax-free location and to maintain an interest-bearing account with access to payments, receivables and digital products. In the second quarter of 2022, it planned to launch its first sustainable deposits offering in Abu Dhabi’s international financial hub.
