Citi’s transaction services bankers can be in no doubt of the firm’s commitment to their business. Chief executive Jane Fraser is on record calling the Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) division the crown jewel of the bank and she rarely misses an opportunity to refer to it. The bank invested $1 billion in technology for this business alone in 2022.
The focus is paying off as the business supplies an invaluable source of diversified revenues and growth. In the 12-month awards period to April 2023, TTS posted a bigger year-on-year revenue increase than any other reported unit of the bank, at 35%. For its continued innovation and increasing importance, Citi is North America’s best bank for transaction services.
“We invested over $1 billion in TTS last year,” says Michael Fossaceca, managing director and North America region head of TTS at Citi. “It is very difficult for smaller banks to invest at this scale, but that is what it takes. We are not just building systems we are protecting them as well – you have to be committed.”
The bank’s payments services business has gone from strength to strength. During the period under review, the bank continued to add to the scope of its Global Instant Payments platform, adding the single euro payments area. And it will shortly be adding Canadian transactions to its WorldLink cross-border instant payments service.
The bank is investing heavily in distributed-ledger technology to support growing demand to work with digital assets. In 2022, it was part of a proof-of-concept project involving the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other industry players exploring the feasibility of a digital money platform known as the regulated liability network.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of change in e-commerce and digital payment acceptance. At the start of the pandemic Citi launched an end-to-end digital payment acceptance solution, Spring, that allows clients to accept locally preferred payment methods anywhere in the world.
We are not just building systems we are protecting them as well – you have to be committed
Michael Fossaceca
It has been adding to that system and it is now available in 20 markets. In October 2022, the bank integrated it with its US electronic billing platform, Citi Present and Pay, meaning that the whole payment lifecycle is in one place.
Citi’s virtual accounts offering, which is currently available in the US and western Europe, and will launch in Asia this year, saw balances rise by 82% in 2022 while adoption was up 33%.
Citi’s digital platforms are a critical part of the payments, liquidity and trade finance capabilities that the bank offers. The CitiDirect platform, which gives clients access to transaction capabilities with one click, saw an 8% annual rise in cumulative active users as of October 2022, driven by a 49% rise in active mobile users.
Corporate cardholders in 57 countries can now manage their card accounts from anywhere using the CitiManager App; and the bank has also launched a travel virtual card product called the Travel Agency Card in partnership with Mastercard.
