Citi Reports Jump In Online Banking Usage By Commercial Clients

Citi‘s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) customers have increased their utilization of the firm’s digital banking technology, while firms globally implemented continuity plans and telecommuting to stay in operation amid the pandemic.

Large international organizations, in addition to small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are using CitiDirect BE to take in funds, pay suppliers, ensure sufficient cash flow and pay taxes and bills, American Banker reported.

App and web users on the system increased to 584,000 this March from 470,000 in the same month last year, while the number of logins rose 18 percent to 4.3 million this March from 3.7 million in the same month last year.

As it stands, a small number of financial institutions (FIs) are said to provide corporate customers with digital accounts. Citi provides digital onboarding to corporate clients in 42 nations and foresees growing to 50 nations by the close of this year.

Digital onboarding is more complicated for corporates than consumers. Tapodyuti Bose, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions’ global head of digital channels and data, said in the report, “In retail banking, you take a selfie, scan your driver’s license and open an account. But the corporate side requires more rigorous know-your-customer checks for compliance, including who owns the company and how much they own.”

Digital onboarding, however, is much quicker compared to manual processes once it is put into place.

Bose previously said that customers across all kinds of businesses are experiencing changes to their business models and are creating direct electronic channels to interact with their clients. This trend, in turn, is disintermediating traditional distribution procedures and supply chains along the way. “Digital was becoming increasingly important,” he said.

The pandemic has functioned as a catalyst to speed up that adoption and to move analog processes toward more streamlined functionality.