Citi announced that Citi Token Services for Cash has moved from a pilot program to a live commercial solution, facilitating multimillion dollar transactions for institutional clients. This marks a significant milestone in Citi’s journey to deliver real-time, always-on, next generation transaction banking services to some of its largest global clients.
In addition, Citi Token Services for Trade also marked a historic milestone by facilitating pilot transactions in partnership with shipping agents, CB Fenton and GAC Panama Shipping.
“The continued progress of Citi Token Services is a key component of Citi’s pursuit of real-time, always-on services for its institutional clients. By using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and smart contracts, Citi has created a patented programmable payment and liquidity platform, which will reduce costs and streamline processes” said Ryan Rugg, head of Digital Assets in the Treasury and Trade Solutions unit at Citi, in a statement.
Citi Token Services for Cash processes multimillion dollar transactions and provides clients with 24/7, always-on cross-border liquidity and payments between participating Citi branches. It’s designed using a private and permissioned blockchain that is solely owned and managed by Citi, ensuring safety and soundness for clients and ease of use. Clients are not required to hold or manage any tokens to access the services.
“At Mars, we are looking to a future where the treasury ecosystem is always on. As an early adopter of Citi Token Services for Cash, we have seen firsthand that this future requires dynamic, real-time solutions for movement of value. Citi takes an open approach to innovative solutions, while keeping safety, reliability, and scalability top of mind. This solution has enabled us to initiate and program instant payments and liquidity movement between our Citi accounts, reducing the friction caused by cutoff times and streamline our transactions by tokenizing cash. With Citi’s private blockchain, we can access all the benefits of blockchain, without any complexity or additional risk – our processes, reporting, and operational risk remain identical,” Mayela Stuparitz, global treasury director at Mars, Incorporated.
Initially, Citi piloted this solution between Singapore and New York, and continues to pursue onboarding additional branches to unlock further opportunities.
“We’ve long seen the potential for clients with Citi Token Services for Cash and are pleased to have the opportunity to now deliver those advantages on an increasing scale” said Ambrish Bansal, global head of Liquidity and Cash Concentration Products at Citi. “For clients, inefficiencies and pain-points like service windows and cut off-times will increasingly fade away as we drive more innovation in this space.”
For the first time, CB Fenton and GAC Panama Shipping have utilized Citi Token Services for transit operations to streamline payments. These pilot transits are the first real-world use of Citi Token Services for Trade in global shipping. By replacing transactions such as guarantees and letters of credit with smart contracts backed by tokenized cash, Citi Token Services for Trade will bring trade finance into an increasingly real-time world. The completely digital process will enable 24/7 settlements, when predetermined criteria are met, between Citi clients and their counterparties to automatically execute and provide provisional payments. This technology will significantly reduce transaction processing times from days to minutes.
“Creating cutting edge digital solutions to meet our clients’ ever-evolving needs is at the core of what we do at Citi. Throughout our history, we have consistently helped to break down the barriers that have constrained global trade. Today, Citi Token Services for Trade represents the next example of how technology is making trade simpler,” said Chris Cox, global head of Trade and Working Capital Solutions at Citi, in a statement.