Global Finance Names Citi Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank in Asia Pacific

Hong Kong – Citi has been named Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank in Asia Pacific by Global Finance magazine in the second and final round of results of the publication's 2021 World's Best Digital Bank Awards. Citi was also awarded World's Best Digital Bank for the 20th consecutive year, and overall Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank.

Earlier this year, in the awards' first round of results, Citi was named Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank in 13 Asia Pacific markets—Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Citi was also recognized across a number of sub-categories in Asia Pacific, winning Best Online Investment Management Services, Best Online Treasury Services, Best Online Portal, Best Integrated Corporate Banking Site, Best Mobile Adaptive Site, and Best SME Banking.

"Our wins from Global Finance recognize our commitment to being the financial partner of choice for digital commerce. In response to the pandemic, an evolving operating environment and the growth of e-commerce, clients in Asia Pacific are increasingly adapting and embracing new and digitally-driven business models. Digital companies are also responding to these developments, with a focus on expanding their operations and capacity to meet the increase in demand for online services," said Rajesh Mehta, Asia Pacific Head, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi. "Supporting our clients and their priorities, we continue to invest in technology to transform the client experience and offer instant, real-time banking services. We remain focused on our innovation efforts and building out capabilities that enable our clients to engage with their customers and broader ecosystems differently."

Citi's digital banking platforms and services continue to see increased adoption by clients:

• Close to 350 million API calls have been processed in Asia Pacific since the launch of APIs for corporates in 2017 with steady client adoption.
• Instant Payments volumes have increased 46% year-on-year, between January to September 2020 and the same period this year.
• CitiDirect BE®—Citi's award-winning online banking platform for institutional and corporate clients—recorded a 13% year-on-year increase in the number of users in October this year.
• With more clients accessing the mobile version of the platform, the CitiDirect BE® mobile app user base is up by nearly 50%.
• Using CitiDirect BE® Digital Onboarding, the majority of account opening is now digital. We saw a 120% increase in the number of accounts opened digitally year-on-year, between November 2019 to September 2020 and November 2020 to September 2021.

The winners of the Global Finance Best Digital Bank Awards are evaluated by a world-class panel of industry experts, based on a number of criteria, including strength of strategy for attracting and servicing digital customers, success in getting clients to use digital offerings, growth of digital customers, breadth of product offerings, evidence of tangible benefits gained from digital initiatives and web/mobile site design and functionality.

See more on Citi's World Best Digital Bank win.