Citigroup Ramps Up Payments Tech With New Tools

Citigroup’s Global Head of Payments and Receivables Manish Kohli is relying on technology to increase its payment business.

“Our strategy has to be very simple,” Kohli told his team recently, as he laid out his mission to ensure that the payments industry keeps up with the pace of technology development. “Our strategy has to be to help our clients succeed in the digital age and help them disrupt, rather than be disrupted.”

Kohli was tapped in 2017 by Citigroup to run the global payments and receivables unit, which is an important business at Citigroup. That unit serves thousands of big companies and governments across the globe, managing $4 trillion in flows each day.

He has already driven tech innovation at Citigroup, pushing for the creation of Citi Smart Match, a tool created in conjunction with High Radius, one of the bank’s FinTech partners. The tool applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to match open invoices with payments that were received.

His unit was also behind the launch of Citi Payment Insights last summer. That tool provides customers with the ability to track payments in real time, and provide deeper visibility in the payment process.

In November, Citigroup announced it had expanded the tool to more than 20 new markets, with it now available in 70 markets. In addition to expanding into new markets, the tool is now available to all client segments across corporate and public sectors, and financial institutions (FIs). New global payments innovation (gpi) branches have also been enabled, totaling 25 major branches, which covers more than 80 percent of Citi’s SWIFT cross-border traffic globally.

“We have expanded the Citi Payment Insights offering to provide global consistency across more markets, segments, and channels, to give our clients an optimal user experience and to help them to succeed in the rapidly changing digital economy,” said Kohli at the time.” To achieve this, we are equipping clients with digital tools to resolve their most common needs instantly. This reduces delays, friction, and costs, all within a comprehensive, convenient and secure solution.”

“We have expanded the Citi Payment Insights offering to provide global consistency across more markets, segments and channels, to give our clients an optimal user experience and to help them to succeed in the rapidly changing digital economy. To achieve this, we are equipping clients with digital tools to resolve their most common needs instantly. This reduces delays, friction and costs, all within a comprehensive, convenient and secure solution.”

In December, under Kohli’s charge, Citigroup partnered with Feedzai, the FinTech to alert companies to suspicious payments. “This is not just about ‘Can we change this industry?’ It’s about changing the industry, and also solving real here-and-now problems for our clients,” Kohli said.