Citi has rolled out a new offering for its institutional customers that accelerates the handling of their international payments by digitizing supporting records. The offering combines the submission of international payment instructions and the records connected with them on one digital platform. It is being launched in South Africa at first, according to a Monday (March 8) announcement.
Businesses that send international payments have to give supporting records to their financial institutions (FIs) to satisfy different foreign exchange (FX) control and regulatory reporting mandates. Up until now, those records were received and handled independently from the payment instructions, meaning that non-automated work to connect them was needed, the announcement stated.
However, records can be finished, handled and monitored digitally through Citi’s CitiDirect BE electronic banking platform. The platform also offers upfront details about the record and data needs for various payment types to users. It establishes clear connections between payments and related records, while decreasing record fulfillment and processing times, according to the announcement.
“Our strategy involves looking across every aspect of our business to identify ways to automate manual processes, both our own and those of our clients, to create new banking tools and solutions befitting a digital age,” Manish Kohli, global head of Payments and Receivables at Citi, said…
