The service is designed to digitize supporting documents and streamline and simplify relevant processes to facilitate cross-border transactions
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, December 18, 2023: Citi today announced the launch of CitiDirect Document Center, a new service for institutional clients in India, as trade and commerce, global supply chain integration, and investments, all spur demand for cross-border payments in and out of the country. India becomes the fifth market in Asia to offer this solution.
The service is designed to digitize supporting documents and streamline and simplify relevant processes to facilitate cross-border transactions. CitiDirect Document Center was first introduced in South Africa in March 2021, and subsequently launched in Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. The service has reduced turnaround time by about 40% on average, for clients’ cross-border payments, in the four Asian markets where it is already live.
India becomes the first country to launch the service with enhanced features on a new interface of the CitiDirect platform. These features include allowing users to view upfront document requirements for the purpose of payment and input key regulatory information (as applicable) at the time of payment initiation. The new look-and-feel of the interface gives clients a simple, intuitive, and user-friendly experience to execute cross-border payments.
“CitiDirect Document Center aims to enhance and streamline the management of cross-border payments in India, a country that is increasingly becoming an integral part of global supply chain strategies. As more local businesses grow rapidly and expand internationally, CitiDirect Document Center will empower clients to respond to global opportunities and help facilitate seamless cross-border transactions for their day-to-day operations,” said Mridula Iyer, Asia South, Treasury & Trade Solutions (TTS) Cluster & Corporate, Commercial & Public Sector (CCPS) Sales Head, Citi.
Clients in India also have an alternative host-to-host channel option to securely transmit document files through direct connectivity with Citi, without any manual intervention or touchpoints.
One of the primary complexities of cross-border transactions is to handle the associated supporting documents manually to meet various FX control and regulatory requirements, which could lead to potential delays. Through this new service, all documents can be uploaded, managed and tracked digitally within a single digital platform, CitiDirect.
We are committed to enable a more seamless, efficient and simpler payment experience for our clients, while providing greater transparency and the tools to better manage day-to-day processes”, said Naman Kapoor, India Payments & Liquidity Head, Citi.
CitiDirect Document Center enables users the option to upload documents post payment initiation, including the ability to add, modify or take action on documents online. The document status information will also be available in Citi Payment Insights, enabling an integrated and transparent view of both the payments and documents for holistic management of clients’ cash movement.
Citi has been helping our clients grow by empowering them to adopt digital transformation, and introducing new solutions and capabilities that improves client experience and reduces friction in our clients’ cross-border payments activity, thereby enabling greater efficiency and scalability.
About Citi:
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.
