HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citi has been recognized as Asia’s Best Digital Bank for 2015 by Global Finance magazine, picking up Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank and Best Consumer Digital Bank in the region.
The annual competition evaluates online and mobile banking applications. Winners were selected based on the strength of strategy for attracting and servicing online customers, success in getting clients to use web offerings, growth of the online customer base, breadth of products offered, evidence of tangible benefits gained from Internet initiatives and web site design and functionality.
“Technology and digitization are transforming how we serve clients. From credit cards to ATMs, Citi has a history of embracing new technologies to transform how it serves clients. In Asia, we have had good success with innovation including new hi tech branches that have since been rolled out globally and our priority is to be the world’s leading digital bank. I would also like to thank our clients whose trust in Citi makes these awards possible,” said Anand Selva, Head of Consumer Banking Asia Pacific at Citi.
Commenting on the Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank win, Amol Gupte, Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions Asia Pacific at Citi said, “We are committed to continuously harness innovation and digitization to help clients better adapt their operating models to shifting market and business demands. Our dedication to digital banking has helped deliver impactful results – making our products simpler, more convenient and flexible, and allowing companies to have improved visibility over their treasury flows in ways that were not previously possible. This award is a testimony to our drive to enhance client experience through digitization, as well as our strong partnership with clients.”
Citi has been investing in digitising its business in Asia to support the changing preferences of its clients. This has included launching mobile banking in all the 12 markets in which the bank operates consumer businesses in the region.
The bank is also actively searching out new solutions. This includes via the Citi Mobile Challenge to help develop the next generation of Fin Tech solutions from this region.
The most recent challenge in Asia drew 1,900 registrations and close to 80 Fin Tech teams showcased their Fin Tech solutions at demo days in Bengaluru on November 3, Singapore on November 6, Sydney on November 10 and Hong Kong on November 12. The winners will be announced on December 15. Citi is confident that the competition along with its own Consumer Innovation labs will help accelerate and uncover new and exciting opportunities for the bank to develop transformational approaches to banking.
Speed, simplicity and ubiquity are guiding Citi’s use of technology. New Citi branches around the world are taking on the Smart Banking model, with interactive touch panels, video-conferencing capabilities and full-service banking from iPhones and iPads. First launched in Asia in 2009, they have since been rolled out globally. These branches bring in two to three times more new clients than traditional branches. They are also going paperless and wireless. Nearly 98% of all Citi’s retail transactions in Asia are now via non-branch channels and around 20% of credit cards are now acquired via digital channels.
On the institutional side, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) enables our clients' success by providing an integrated suite of innovative and tailored cash management and trade finance services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations across the globe. Based on the foundation of the industry's largest proprietary network with banking licenses in over 100 countries and globally integrated technology platforms, TTS continues to lead the way in offering the industry's most comprehensive range of digitally enabled treasury, trade and liquidity management solutions.
CitiDirect BESM, Citi’s institutional e-banking platform serves as the foundation of its online banking strategy, providing a single, centralized point-of-access to a full range of global cash, trade, liquidity and investment services. It is available across 95 countries in 24 languages and transacts in 140 currencies. CitiDirect BESM has been ranked number #1 globally for nine consecutive years in the prestigious Online Services Benchmarking Study by Greenwich Associates, an independent research and consulting firm.
In 2014, TTS processed more than 100 million e-payment transactions on its CitiDirect BESM platform in Asia, of which US$120 billion in transaction value was done on CitiDirect BESM Mobile and US$1.47 billion in transaction value on the new CitiDirect BESM Tablet.
In Asia, Citi is also the only bank to launch Virtual Accounts for corporate clients across 16 markets, as well as Virtual Card Accounts across seven markets. Virtual Accounts is a payment mechanism in which a corporate issues a special purpose virtual account number to customers for payments, whilst Virtual Card Accounts is a market-leading solution which generates a single-use account number for each card transaction, ensuring secure domestic and cross-border B2B payments.
In the awards announced in late October, Citi was also named Best Overall Global Digital Bank.
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.
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