Citi launches biometric authentication for institutional clients in Vietnam

Citi’s institutional clients in Vietnam, China, India, Singapore and Thailand can now use fingerprint or facial recognition to access their CitiDirect BE^® Mobile App, Citi’s award-winning digital banking platform for institutions on mobile.

First piloted with select clients in the region in 2018, the CitiDirect BE^® Mobile App offers clients a fast, simple and secure banking experience. Through the app, a client can authorise payments, view balances and cash positions, and manage users. The app and biometric authentication capability will be separately introduced in additional markets in the region progressively.

Designed in partnership with clients, the biometric solution enables authentication in mere seconds and serves as an additional alternative for secure access to accounts. Prior to the new solution, clients would have to use MobilePASS – an app-based digital token – or physical tokens to first generate dynamic passcodes before accessing their accounts.

“We continue to digitise our core offerings, incorporating a design thinking and client-centric approach to offer solutions that provide real value to institutional clients. It is imperative that institutions adopt new mobile technologies to remain efficient and competitive. The CitiDirect BE^® Mobile App, coupled with biometric authentication capability, now enables clients to manage their institutional banking needs anytime and anywhere,” said Keng-Mun Lee, Asia Pacific head of Channel and Enterprise Services, Treasury and Trade Solutions.

Institutional clients are increasingly embracing mobile. In 2018, Citi saw a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of mobile users on Citi Direct BE^® in Asia Pacific. Over the past two years, over $2.5 trillion of payments processed by Citi’s Treasury & Trade Solutions in the region were approved using mobile devices.

CitiDirect BE^® is available in 95 countries worldwide, across 26 languages and over 135 currencies. The platform provides a single point of access for institutional clients to Citi’s full range of global cash, trade, liquidity and investment services. In early 2019, the platform was ranked first in Greenwich Associates’ Digital Benchmarking study for the 13^th consecutive year.