New Capabilities Help Address Key Challenges Facing Institutional Billers in the U.S.

Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) has enhanced Citi^® Present and Pay, its market-leading electronic bill presentment and payment platform for institutional billers in the U.S. Key new capabilities include the addition of Citi^® Verify, a real-time account verification tool, and electronic bill (e-Bill) distribution capabilities through Request for Pay (RfP) messaging via the RTP© network, the real-time payment system from The Clearing House (TCH).

“Our clients are increasingly focused on improving the end-user experience of their own customers, with integrated, multi-channel solutions that offer more choice and convenience with flexible payment options and simplified user experiences,” said Michael Fossaceca, North America Region Head, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions. “We are pleased to provide these new capabilities that can be implemented quickly and can immediately add value to their customers.”

Citi Present and Pay is an omni-channel electronic bill presentment and payment platform that enables institutional clients to distribute bills digitally to customers across multiple communication channels, including email, SMS/text, voice/phone, and web and mobile web; and to collect corresponding bill payments via ACH, credit and debit cards, and alternative payment methods (APMs). The new enhancements will enable clients in the U.S. to deliver a better bill-pay experience for their consumer customers in the case of RfP functionality, while also helping to eliminate costly inefficiencies and help address new compliance rules related to ACH direct debits in the case of Citi Verify.

Both Citi Verify for account validation and RfP for e-bill distribution/real-time bill payment are offered as optional services through Present and Pay and require no additional implementation. Both services are also available on a stand-alone basis outside of Present and Pay.

In line with Citi’s broader strategy to leverage Fintech partnerships when appropriate, Citi offers Present and Pay through fully integrated partnerships with multiple “best in class” billing service providers (BSPs), including Aliaswire Inc., the first BSP partner to deploy Request for Pay and Citi Verify services for Citi’s institutional clients.

“These capabilities are the future of payment processing,” said Scott Goldthwaite, President of Aliaswire, a Massachusetts-based payment technology company that equips banks to provide custom-branded billing and payment capabilities to their commercial clients. “Aliaswire’s support of Citi’s RfP capability and Citi Verify represent our strong partnership with Citi and we are proud to create these new payment capabilities within the Present and Pay billing platform.”

Citi Present and Pay now offers Citi Verify to allow clients to seamlessly conduct real-time validation of customer bank account details to help ensure compliance with the new Web Debit Account Validation Rule from the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) requiring institutional billers and other ACH payment originators to confirm the validity of a payer’s bank account before using an ACH direct debit to collect the payment. With this enhancement, clients can now validate their U.S.-based customers’ bank account information prior to a customer’s enrolment within Present and Pay and/or before initiating payment transactions. This helps reduce potential fraud and operational inefficiencies often associated with ACH direct debits for bill payment.

In addition, Citi Present and Pay now offers Request for Pay (RfP) messaging offered through TCH’s RTP network. With this capability, institutional clients can use RfP messages to send e-bills to their customers who hold retail bank accounts at Citi and other banks participating in the RTP network. In addition to benefits to the biller, RfP capabilities enable consumers to benefit from the flexibility to pay their bills immediately, at any time of day, 365 days a year, with greater control over their finances to help avoid overdraft and late fees.

“As the speed of money movement increases and more and more consumers move to digital channels to manage their finances, especially as a result of COVID, we are pleased to offer real-time payment like RfP and risk-mitigation solutions like Citi Verify to our institutional clients in the U.S.,” said Alberto Casas, North America Payments and Receivables Head, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions. “Integrating these two capabilities into Present and Pay makes it easier and more efficient for U.S. billers to leverage these best-in-class solutions without requiring additional IT resources for deployment. These are the first of several new services we plan to add to Present and Pay to help drive a better bill-pay experience for both Citi clients and their customers.”

For institutional clients, the new billing capabilities present multiple potential benefits, including:

• Operational Efficiencies
  • Adding RfP-driven payments into a biller’s broader payment strategy, enabling benefits such as easier reconciliation of billed amounts and payments collected
  • Potential reduction of operational exceptions often associated with ACH direct debits
  • With RfP, increased transparency and real-time visibility into when payments will be settled, reducing service calls that can also frustrate consumer customers
  • Access to Citi Verify real-time account validation helps reduce unintended payment declines, potential fraudulent transactions and other exceptions that require manual work to resolve
• Access to Working Capital
  • Improved working capital and liquidity management by leveraging RfP for instant collection of funds on a 24/7 basis
• Making it easier for billers to access Citi Verify to help address compliance with the new NACHA rule related to ACH direct debits

For consumers paying bills from their retail bank accounts, potential benefits include:

• Additional protections against unintended use of their accounts due to their biller’s use of Citi Verify
• Flexibility: Paying their bills immediately at any time of day, 365 days a year using RfP. Unlike transactions made via ACH or paper checks, payments tied to RfP messages are designed to be completed and settled in real-time via the RTP network; with more control over the timing of each payment made via RfP, including final say over whether and when to authorize and schedule each payment

Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) enables our clients' success by providing an integrated suite of innovative and tailored cash management and trade finance services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations across the globe. Based on the foundation of the industry's largest proprietary network with banking licenses in over 90 countries and globally integrated technology platforms, TTS continues to lead the way in offering the industry's most comprehensive range of digitally enabled treasury, trade and liquidity management solutions.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

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