Consumers Drive Unprecedented Growth in e-Commerce with 1.7 Million Daily Transactions
Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) launches domestic instant payments in Brazil bringing its global footprint to 28 markets in multiple geographic regions. Usage of Citi’s instant payments platform has grown at an unprecedented rate, of over 100% growth in the last 12 months. With Instant payments, also known as real-time or immediate payments, funds can be transmitted within seconds, 24/7 and are available to recipients immediately. By using Citi’s innovative platform, institutional clients have the ability to receive and send payments instantly, 24/7. Consumers benefit from speed, convenience and flexibility as well.
“With the growth of both Consumer to Business and Business to Consumer flows, instant payments provide a convenient alternative to traditional methods that can help strengthen customer connections. Citi continues to invest in its network and platforms to provide the latest solutions to help clients meet their evolving payment needs.”
Citi’s Instant Payments consist of API-driven features, and have been designed to provide a unified and globally consistent point of access for clients to implement domestic instant payments in multiple markets covering all regions and key economies. Benefits of the platform to clients include the ability to launch globally consistent payment methods quickly in a consistent manner.
Over the last year and a half, COVID has fueled the growth of e-Commerce and new business models, with consumers increasingly interacting digitally with institutions, and sales shifting to direct-to-consumer online channels. Instant Payments have also played an important role in helping to improve working capital for institutions, which are now able to get incoming payments quicker, while also offering their customers greater flexibility, and choice of payment method.
“The needs of our clients are constantly evolving, especially with the growth of digital across all industries. Instant Payments are fast becoming the new norm, enabling our clients to enhance their experience and shift towards a 24/7, always-on environment,” said Shahmir Khaliq, Global Head of Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions. “With the growth of both Consumer to Business and Business to Consumer flows, instant payments provide a convenient alternative to traditional methods that can help strengthen customer connections. Citi continues to invest in its network and platforms to provide the latest solutions to help clients meet their evolving payment needs.”
In recent years, many countries have advanced their digital capabilities by rolling out local instant payment schemes. While local rules and standards vary from country-to-country, most schemes provide payment confirmation within seconds, facilitating end-to-end tracking and aiding with reconciliation. Citi has responded to country disparities by building a globally consistent solution that provides institutional clients with uniform connectivity to all key domestic instant payment systems.
“Citi’s Global Instant Payments platform, which Uber is using in our top 4-5 markets, seamlessly delivers real-time payments across borders, offering a superior experience for customers,” stated Rasik Krishna, Global Disbursements & Earner financial products for Uber. “This completely interoperable solution has been a real success factor for us at Uber and we plan to expand it to additional geographic regions going forward.”
Citi’s has taken a single point-of-entry (one-API connectivity) approach allowing a company to grow its payments capabilities in multiple markets much quicker than before. In addition, complimentary APIs can be used to tap a host of value-added services, such as real-time verification of payment status and payers’ balances, instant notification of incoming credits and outgoing debits, and other services that seamlessly integrate clients’ systems with Citi’s to digitize processes.
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“Using Citi’s instant payments solution and APIs allows us to better manage large volumes of payments and achieve straight-through processing. The impact of this solution has been phenomenal, enabling our business to have a competitive advantage and providing a service to the community as our riders can get paid faster,” stated Becky Landrock, Senior Treasury Manager, Deliveroo.
Instant payments capabilities create exciting new opportunities for companies to build reimagined products, solutions and experiences for their consumer customers befitting the digital age. Given Citi’s global network, and investment, the ability to connect these rails across markets will continue and is expected to accelerate.
Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) helps enable 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 90 countries and globally integrated technology platforms, TTS continues to lead the way in offering a comprehensive range of digitally enabled treasury, trade and liquidity management solutions.
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