As platforms, corporates and financial institutions scale and bring personalized financial products and solutions to their end customers, application programming interfaces (APIs) are proving to be a critical lifeline. They connect third-party applications, data and developers to shorten the time to market for those innovations as developer teams help enable alternative payment methods, like virtual cards and instant payments.
Citi Services Global Head of Platform and Data Services Naveed Anwar told PYMNTS the rapid adoption of APIs, shifting regulations and the rise of open banking all demand a standardized approach to data usage and data sharing.
To that end, as announced last October, Citi has expanded its namesake Developer Portal, which sits within its CitiConnect platform, to cover multi-channel integration capabilities and act as a central, self-service hub supporting batch-mode processes, real-time APIs and pre-built connectivity solutions. The end result is that corporate developer teams shorten their integration timelines with banks, where those integrations have typically taken months.
“CitiConnect is the backbone,” said Anwar, “to allow clients to implement those services through APIs, through files or direct connections to their ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] and TMS [treasury management systems] that they use for their day-to-day activities.”
Each Citi client has a different set of IT departments housed within their operations — and those developers can and do work with the Developer Portal to work with APIs, “play” in the company’s sandbox environment, make test calls and integrate solutions.
“It’s no different than when you and I walk into a mall and are doing some window shopping — and we decide to try that jacket that we’ve been looking at through the window,” said Anwar.
With a nod toward the standardization of those efforts, Anwar told PYMNTS that “we’re present in 90+ markets and have been working with regulators across the world … to identify the nuances that are different in each market” adding that “the developer ecosystem has been among the areas of key importance to us.”
Anwar noted, too, that his company, which processes $5 trillion in payments volume on a daily basis, is part of the Swift working group that has been focused on promoting API standards; the bank is also embracing ISO 20022 financial messaging standards that are on pace to be introduced in different geographic regions over time.
The self-service features of the platform and portal enable Citi’s corporate and financial institution clients — numbering more than 20,000 — to find the right solutions and exchange data with Citi, spanning account balances, payments and other processes.
“We’ve made a lot more sample codes available,” Anwar told PYMNTS, “and really simplified our documentation, while giving examples of solutions that we offer out of the gate … so that clients are able to get what they’re looking for easily.” There have been several cases, he said, where Citi will work with client firms to “customize” solutions that in “co-creator” fashion leads to new features that can then be deployed in other markets. “The idea is always to make sure that our capabilities are meeting the breadth of our clients needs, but we’re also nimble and agile and remain open to the ideas that our clients are giving us feedback on.”
The scalability of the CitiConnect platform, and the enhanced Developer Portal, said Anwar, will be extensible enough to include new and emerging technologies, including blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). The company’s API catalog also includes access to Citi Token Services, which helps improve liquidity and transparency for cross-border payments on a 24/7/365 basis — all examples that Anwar said “deliver high-impact use cases that enhance the client experience and operational efficiencies.”
As he told PYMNTS, “We’re designing a great client experience and digital solutions for our entire portfolio, which helps evolve our business, and our clients’ businesses, as they evolve with us.”
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