Citi Unveils New Digital Assets Cash Management and Trade Finance Offering

Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) has developed a new digital asset solutions service aimed at institutional clients for cash management and trade finance, called Citi Token Services. According to a story in The Trade news, the offering uses blockchain and smart contract technologies and “will integrate tokenised deposits and smart contracts into Citi’s global network, upgrading core cash management and trade finance capabilities”. On a 24/7 basis, Citi Token Services will provide users cross-border payments, liquidity, and automated trade finance solutions. In development Citi worked with Maersk as well as a canal authority “to digitise a solution that serves the same purpose as bank guarantees and letters of credit in the trade finance ecosystem”. The technology used in the pilot provided buyers and sellers with instant payment capabilities, which will serve to make transaction processing more efficient, reduced from taking days to taking minutes. In addition, Citi confirmed that its new offering’s blockchain technology is owned and managed by Citi, meaning that there is no requirement for clients to host a blockchain node to access the services.