There are many reasons why Citi wins this year’s award for Asia’s best digital bank. Above all, the bank has no peer when it comes to investing year after year in cutting-edge digital solutions that benefit all of its clients.
Let’s start with CitiDirect, its global online banking platform. In recent years, the firm has invested heavily in building an ultra-intuitive and highly resilient platform for its transaction banking clients. After a successful pilot, 100,000 clients across Asia were seamlessly transitioned onto the enhanced platform in 2023, delivering intuitive payment submission, streamlined supporting document submission and simplified foreign exchange integration for customers in 10 Asian markets.
CitiDirect Commercial Banking, a new platform unveiled in July 2023, caters specifically to the needs of its commercial banking clients. The platform brings together Citi’s global suite of products and services in a single digital platform, spanning loans, cash, trade, FX, servicing and onboarding. Launched initially in the US, it was rolled out during the awards period in Hong Kong and Singapore.
“We have made significant investments into building out our digital banking platforms, CitiDirect and CitiConnect, to enhance client experience, enable global commerce and support our client’s growth agenda,” says Rishi Luthria, head of platforms and data services, Japan, Asia North and Australia at Citi. “One such example is our new CitiDirect platform – it is ultra-intuitive and highly resilient for our transaction banking clients and aims to deliver world-class capabilities with customizable layouts, simplified navigation and intuitive, persona-based user journeys.”
Another standout new offering unveiled in 2023, Citi’s Trusted Identity Cross-channel Authentication, extends transaction authorization capabilities across multiple customer touch points in Singapore and Hong Kong. Customers can use a more secure ID system to complete digital purchases, identify themselves to phone banking staff, make online bill payments and execute transactions via Citibank Online.
There is a raft of other innovative services. On-Demand Sweeps, newly introduced to China, provides mainland clients with access to their cash to support real-time funding of payments. The bank also expanded the reach of its Intelligent Pooling Solutions to Japan and Thailand during the awards period. The product automates currency conversions to aggregate foreign-currency balances the same day.
Pay to China by Citi, also unveiled last year, enables foreign e-commerce platform and payment intermediary companies to process payments seamlessly to retail and corporate bank accounts in China, with no supporting documents required. CitiDirect Document Centre, a new offering that streamlines cross-border payments by bringing together payment instructions and document submissions on a single platform, was launched in India in 2023. The service has already cut turnaround times by an average of 40% for cross-border payments in key Asia-Pacific markets.
Citi has no peer when it comes to investing year after year in cutting-edge digital solutions that benefit all of its clients
Citi Instant Payments, the bank’s global instant payments offering, was rolled out in Vietnam for the first time in April 2023. Payments Express, its cloud-based, application programming interface-enabled, real-time instant payments platform, was in turn unveiled in Thailand and India.
In April 2023, Citi completed its first blockchain-enabled letter of credit in India via the digital trade finance network Contour, for local conglomerate Cummins India. Contour can cut document processing time from up to 10 days to as little as three hours.
In wealth management, Citi launched e-Bonds Digital Journey, to meet increasing demand for debt securities among wealthy clients in Hong Kong and Singapore. The new platform gives clients the chance to invest in fixed income securities and to manage their portfolio via the bank’s mobile app.
