11th April 2019 – Citi has launched CitiDirect BE® Digital Onboarding for institutional clients in Asia Pacific, introducing a completely digitized onboarding process that enables clients to open accounts in as quickly as two days.
Using Citi’s new digital onboarding solution, institutional clients can now complete Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and account opening in a manner that better suits their need for speed, efficiency and flexibility. With the Asia launch, clients will also have immediate access to Citi’s suite of core online banking and payment solutions upon account opening.
The solution went live in Singapore and Hong Kong last week, following the launch of digital onboarding across other regions. CitiDirect BE® Digital Onboarding was first launched in the U.S. followed by six markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa in January 2019. The solution will continue be rolled out in additional markets worldwide, including in Asia, in the coming quarters.
The new digital solution replaces a mostly manual legacy paper-driven and courier-based documentation process and comes off the back of a global documentation rationalization program that reduced over 70% of service agreements and forms.
Clients can now complete their onboarding requests through a user-friendly interface on the CitiDirect BE® Digital Onboarding portal. The portal integrates the use of electronic signatures and existing data assets to complete KYC and account opening. In addition to saving time, clients will not have to interact with as many touchpoints and will be able to manage their account opening processes with greater flexibility and increased information.
Once in the portal, relevant data from a client’s parent entity or existing data on the client is pre-populated, allowing the client to fill in only the additional information required. Using electronic signatures and the portal’s digital document exchange feature, clients can then submit relevant documents and instructions electronically to complete an onboarding request.
Commenting on the launch of CitiDirect BE® Digital Onboarding, Asia Pacific Head of Citi’s Treasury & Trade Solutions business Rajesh Mehta said, “We continue to invest in new technologies and leverage our digital capabilities to deliver an elevated client experience across our product offerings and network. As our clients manage their businesses through disruption, the need for quicker servicing is increasingly crucial. Recognizing this client need, we began by rethinking and then redesigning the client onboarding journey to introduce an optimal solution. Addressing clients’ needs, we will continue to bring new capabilities to market as we continue to make progress on digitizing our core banking capabilities, end-to-end.”
