Citi Begins Rollout of Integrated Digital Bill Discounting Solution

Citi has launched an integrated digital bill discounting solution that it said helps users monetize receivables in less than an hour.

The new Citi Digital Bill (CDB) is now available to Citi clients in the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland, the bank said in a Monday (Oct. 28) press release.

Citi plans to expand this solution to more countries in 2024, subject to necessary approvals, according to the release.

“The launch of Citi Digital Bill is a significant advancement in trade finance, marking a groundbreaking shift away from longstanding paper and the wet ink-based practice of discounting bills,” Sanjeev Ganjoo, global head of trade receivable finance at Citi Services, said in the release.

CDB digitizes the flows within Citi’s proprietary receivables finance platform, CitiDirect, providing an alternative to traditional paper-based bills of exchange (BoE), according to the release.

It enables the parties to a digital bill — seller, buyer and Citi — to sign, accept, endorse and finance the digital bill in CitiDirect, the release said.

The solution provides clarity and transparency for both sellers and buyers, per the release.

“Citi Digital Bill is a testimony to our digital-first approach to enhancing trade finance solutions,” Ganjoo said in the release. “By effectively leveraging the power of technology, we continue to create substantial value for our clients through increased speed and transparency.”

Trade finance is evolving from simple, often singular, financial instruments to ecosystem-based offerings that cater to the complete customer journey and include trade loans, discounting loans and supply chain finance, as well as services like letters of credit, performance guarantees and documentary collections, PYMNTS reported in January.

All facets of commerce are migrating away from cash and paper checks to faster payments, Biswarup Chatterjee, head of partnerships and innovation at Citi Services, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted in January.

Citi’s opportunities lie in crafting microservices underpinned by data and artificial intelligence, API-enabled connectivity and tokenization, Chatterjee said.

“We’re in the middle of a larger transaction chain,” Chatterjee said, and “in some cases, we’re the central place where both counterparties meet for the transaction to clear. In other cases, we’re in the middle where there’s another financial institution required to complete the transaction.”