Citi Expands Its Payments Innovation Toolkit with Investment in Icon Solutions

• Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) invests in Icon Solutions, utilizing the Icon Payments Framework (IPF) to revamp its payments infrastructure, prioritizing flexibility, real-time capabilities, and response to regulatory changes.
• Benefits include end-to-end ISO native payments, scalable and cloud-ready solutions, and API-driven interfaces, amplifying client access to data in a streamlined, globally consistent manner.

Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS), within Citi’s Services organization, has made an investment in Icon Solutions, a leading fintech provider of payments technology and consultancy services. In addition to the investment, Citi plans to expand its use of the Icon Payments Framework (IPF) to enhance its micro-services orchestration architecture. This investment and relationship with Icon Solutions demonstrates Citi’s strategy of working with fintechs to strengthen its technology and payments capabilities.

Citi is working on a multi-year modernization effort of its payments platforms. As part of the program, Citi is working with and has invested in Icon Solutions to expand its innovation toolkit and futureproof its payments services. TTS will be using the IPF as part of its micro-services architecture.

Citi’s new payment platform will prioritize flexibility and accelerate the bank’s ability to respond to the exponential pace of change in payment infrastructure and the regulatory environment, as well as evolving client demands in an increasingly 24/7, real-time, digital-first environment.

Debopama Sen, Head of Payments, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, said, “We are on a journey to unlock the full potential of the Citi network and respond to the need for a streamlined and efficient payment processing system. Through this relationship, we are removing platform complexity across our multiple products by following a process of ‘de-platforming’ common business services and creating reusable and extensible services that can be orchestrated using the IPF framework.”

“Our new approach will empower our engineering teams to respond quicker and more efficiently to industry developments, such as ISO 20022, and deliver high-quality innovation and functionality for our clients,” she added.

Benefits of the payment transformation program include:

• True end-to-end ISO native payments that meet evolving industry and regulatory requirements, and deliver richer data to clients
• Futureproof solutions that are scalable and cloud-ready
• API-driven interfaces to enhance and accelerate client access to data

Citi TTS manages a global network that spans more than 95 countries with membership in over 270 clearing systems. Clients can make payments in 145 currencies through an interface that is intuitive and globally consistent. With ongoing investments such as this, it will continue to meet clients’ needs for feature-rich, low-latency, high-throughput, always-on, 24/7 borderless payments.

Nick Nadgauda, Head of Technology, Citi Services, said, “The IPF enables Citi’s engineers to build, deploy and test capabilities rapidly. Coupled with independently deployable and evolvable micro-services, Citi will be able to horizontally scale for growing payments volumes and improve time to market.”

Tom Kelleher, Co-Founder and Director, Icon Solutions, added, “We are proud to be working with Citi on their journey towards a truly efficient, flexible payments platform. By reimagining its payments processing to reflect a rapidly evolving ecosystem and emerging customer requirements, Citi can meet the opportunities and demands of tomorrow. IPF offers a sustainable alternative to traditional infrastructure to support this change, empowering Citi to take control, overcome complexity and simplify payments transformation across the organization.”

Citi TTS helps enable its 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 a comprehensive range of digitally enabled treasury, trade, and liquidity management solutions.

Source: Citi