(9 November 2016 – Global) Citigroup has revealed, Citi Pay, its digital wallet for payments, enabling payments in-store, in-app, and online.
The service will be rolling out to Citibank customers in Australia, Singapore, and Mexico later this year, with a US launch planned for early 2017.
Barry Rodrigues, head of global digital payments at Citi, said: “Citi Pay is a digital extension of the card relationships we have with our customers.
“This wallet allows them to make purchases online and in-app using their existing Citibank online user ID and password, and to complete purchases in stores through tap and pay technology. This is an important step for us. While payments innovation continues to accelerate, our focus is delivering solutions that are responsive to our customers’ needs.”
Citibank will also be partnering with MasterCard to leverage the company’s Masterpass offering within the digital wallet, a partnership that will allow the bank’s customers to complete in-app or online transactions with every merchant connected to the Masterpass network, meaning hundreds of thousands of merchants.
“We have a shared vision around what’s possible in payments and digital,” said Matt Barr, group head, US emerging payments at Mastercard, of the partnership with Citi.
Citi has leveraged Masterpass previously for in-browser transactions with its Citi Masterpass product. According to Barr, this new integration with Citi Pay is an “upgrade of that experience,” as it now means Citi customers can complete in-app or mobile-based transactions in the same manner.
Customers will be able to use their existing Citi credentials for Citi Pay.
Additionally, customers who have Android devices will also have the ability to pay via NFC at the point of sale, otherwise known as contactless payments.
Citibank’s announcement follows that of rivals such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo who have launched branded wallets as well.
“There’s a growing list of banks that have put out a payments solution out of their branding, and I think that’s the right move,” says Barr, citing financial institutions like KeyBank and Capital One.
“Coming under that bank’s brand; it’s trusted; that’s really important. In this migration to digital this kind of trust and ease is key to adoption.”
Citigroup has a demonstrated interest in technological and financial innovation. It has an innovation group called Citi Fintech solely devoted to it, and its venture capital arm Citi Ventures has invested in fintech startups including Betterment, Chain, FastPay, and Square.