Citi Sri Lanka wins ‘Best Digital Bank 2019’ Award

• Global Finance recognises Citi’s digital leadership in Sri Lanka

Citi was named ‘Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank in Sri Lanka’ by Global Finance in the publication’s annual ‘World’s Best Digital Bank Awards,’ recognising Citi Sri Lanka’s digital leadership in country.   

In the publication’s ‘2019 World’s Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank Awards in Asia Pacific,’ Citi swept the winning title across all 17 markets covered by the awards program. The bank also won six regional sub-category awards, including ‘Best Online Cash Management,’ ‘Best Trade Finance Services,’ ‘Best Online Treasury Services,’ ‘Best in Mobile Banking,’ ‘Best Mobile Banking App,’ and ‘Best Open Banking APIs’.

Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions launched CitiDirect BE on mobile and table devices in Asia Pacific over the past year. CitiDirect BE is the bank’s award-winning institutional online banking platform. The business also introduced biometric authentication for institutional clients, enabling facial recognition and fingerprint authentication for convenient access to CitiDirect BE.

Citi was also the first bank to launch digital onboarding across multiple markets in Asia Pacific, enabling clients to open accounts in as quickly as two days using a completely digitised onboarding process. The solution is live in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand with more markets in the region to follow.   

Commenting on the wins, Citi’s Asia Pacific Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions Rajesh Mehta said, “We are delighted that our ongoing efforts to digitise and innovate to serve our clients better have been recognised by Global Finance. We continue to make strategic investments to expand our digital capabilities and fintech partnerships and establish Citi as the financial ecosystem of choice for clients in the digital economy.”    Citi has recently announced a number of partnerships with digital natives in the region. In the second quarter of the year, Citi announced a white-label credit card partnership with Paytm in India. The bank also announced the expansion of its regional partnership with Grab with the launch of a co-branded credit card beginning with the Philippines with additional markets to follow.    

Citi Sri Lanka Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) Dilshan Seneviratne stated: “We are committed to leading the way in offering the industry’s most comprehensive range of digitally enabled treasury, trade and liquidity management solutions. In today’s day and age, digitisation plays an integral part in shaping day-to-day treasury operations and our local franchise is continuously innovating our digital strategy to align with our clients’ needs. This award reaffirms our commitment to innovation and excellence as well as Citi’s leadership within the digital banking landscape in Sri Lanka.”