Citi’s Treasury Unit Embraces UK Open Banking

Citi is the first corporate bank to enroll in the U.K.’s Open Banking Directory in an effort to enhance payment and collection services for business clients, the FI said Monday (June 4).

Citi announced it is joining the Directory as a Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP), enabling the bank to pilot payment and collection services for its corporate customers.

“We see open banking as a significant development in the banking landscape in Europe and increasingly in other regions, as regulators seek to drive competition and innovation in financial services,” said Ireti Samuel-Ogbu, Citi’s head of EMEA payments and receivables, in a statement.

“Open banking in the U.K. is particularly attractive to us and our clients, as it enables collections with open APIs [to be] standardized and live across the Competition and Markets Authority’s nine banks,” Samuel-Ogbu continued. “Citi continues to work with the U.K. Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) and regulators around the globe to drive positive development in open banking and to deliver payment system innovations that work for both consumer and business users.”

The CMA’s nine banks are the U.K.’s largest banks that are required under open banking legislation to develop open APIs and enable third parties to access data held by the FIs.

In another statement, OBIE trustee Imran Gulamhuseinwala said the Entity is “delighted to have Citi enrolled in our U.K. Open Banking Directory and are excited by their vision to leverage open banking to create new payment services for the U.K. market.”

“As a leading global bank, Citi’s engagement is a strong endorsement of the U.K. open banking initiative, and we look forward to further collaboration to develop the open banking ecosystem,” Gulamhuseinwala continued.

Last year, Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions announced the launch of an API, the CitiConnect API, which connects corporate clients to Citi treasury and cash management services.