Bangkok--27 Nov--Citibank
Citibank today launches Thailand’s first Digital Global Banking service, a new service targeting ‘Global Minded Customers’ — clienteles whose lives take place beyond their home country such as expatriates, frequent travelers and scholars studying abroad. Citibank aims to attract and wins more Global clients with this robust and innovative Global Banking value proposition and become Thailand’s first global gateway for local customers.
Mrs. Vira-anong Phutrakul, Managing Director Retail Banking Head, Citibank N.A., explained,” In Asia, the need for international banking, travel and investment services has been rising rapidly amongst affluent and emerging affluent clients. They need a bank to deliver a radically simplified, fast, easy and delightful retail bank experience. From the consumer survey conducted among Citi clients, 54 percent of clients have made overseas trip in the last year, 65 percent want a bank that allows them access to the branch or their money anywhere in the world and 18 percent have immediate family working or studying overseas. Citi’s strong international presence in 160 countries including seven countries in the AEC range - Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei and Indonesia allows us to leverage Global Banking capability to differentiate across markets and segments to serve their needs.”
Mrs. Vira-anong further elaborated that “The global banking services are tailor made and enriched to the targeted ‘Global Minded Customers’ enabling them to manage their desired banking transactions no matter where they are. For example, Citi clients can transfer funds seamlessly between Citibank accounts worldwide free and instantly (real-time) by the service of “Citibank Global Fund Transfer”, This service is now live in 30 countries around the world across major financial cities including U.K., U.S., Japan, China, India, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Having multiple accounts in more than one country, clients will be able to view all of them at one single point real time. This service known as ‘Global View of Accounts’ makes it more convenient for Citi clients to control their portfolio.”
Currently, Citi serves over 1.4 million ‘Global Minded Customers’ around the globe, of which approximately 600,000 customers are based in APAC. There is an average growth of 43% for clients in APAC that subscribed on the Global View of Accounts service and this continues to grow rapidly.
“Citi has 8 foreign currency deposits accounts available to serve our clients comprising of, USD, AUD SGD, GBP, EUR, CHF, HKD and JPY. These are the world’s major currencies which underscore Citi’s real global coverage.” Mrs. Vira-anong emphasized.
Mr. Titiporn Thammapimookkul, E-Business Head, Citibank N.A., highlighted on Citibank’s digital strategic direction supporting this launch, “Thailand market and consumer are dynamic all the time under the environment where they are bombarded with information and technological development. SoLoMo (Social Media, Location and Mobile) is the upcoming trend taking the form of mobile phone apps that combine social networking and location base. Citi Mobile application is built for the customers who need to do banking on the go with similar features as those of Citibank Online. Since it launched in 2008, Citi Mobile Banking Service added around 60,000 to 70,000 new mobile users per month and recently Citibank has reached 1.1 million users in Asia Pacific. In total, the bank sees between 12 million and 13 million online and mobile log-ins every month. Citi Mobile application is now available on both App Store and Play Store.”
From the strong effort, Citibank Thailand has won ten consecutive years Thailand’s Best Internet Banking and Citi’s in seven markets in APAC has won the 2012 World’s Best Consumer Internet Banks in Asia. Citibank digital banking experience touches all customer life-cycle from the first day of registration through all digital communications such as e-Statement, Electronic Direct Mail (eDM), SMS and campaign registration via online. Our digital banking proposition designed to match with Citi’s customer lifestyle and by 2013, all three platforms, PC, tablet and mobile will be seamlessly aligned.