Citi almost triples wealth transactions after digital revamp

Four of five clients use the bank’s mobile app regularly. 

Citibank Singapore’s wealth management transactions rose 2.6 times in the last year after revamping its mobile app and website and launching more than a hundred features to its wealth products, according to the bank.

“We realized that our digital ecosystem should speak in the wealth language,” Gourab Kundu, head of digital growth for Asia South at Citi Wealth, the bank’s wealth management arm, told Asian Banking & Finance.

“The few immediate changes that we made is to completely revamp the way we speak to our clients through our website and mobile app,” he said via Zoom.

Four of five clients use Citi’s digital app regularly. 

One of the biggest changes to the lender’s digital platforms is an auto top-up feature where brokerage clients can now invest in US dollars. Citi will do the foreign currency swap for the client in real time.

“We were told that 70% of our transactions in brokerage happen in the US markets, based on Singapore data” Kundu said, noting that clients previously had to first convert Singapore dollars to US dollars before transacting. More than 90% of their brokerage transactions are now done digitally.

Kundu’s team crafted an auto top-up feature, which allowed clients to invest directly by enabling currency conversion on the back end.

Citi also doubled mutual fund transactions after simplifying the investment process, whilst rolling out an easy visualiser so clients could quickly see the movements of their wealth portfolios, he said.

Kundu said that in Citi, wealth management is in the era of hybrid experiences for its clients since they use digital platforms whilst still talking to relationship managers.

He said that in Asia, there has been an influx of digital wealth management providers in the past three to four years, making wealth services more accessible to their clients.

To stay on top of the game, Citi combines digital and human access. For example, the bank allows a client to swiftly authorise a transaction without speaking with an advisor face-to-face.

“Essentially, the advisor reaches out to the clients to tell them about a product,” Kundu said. “The platform triggers an alert, where [the client] can review the transaction before authorizing it. It’s all done within the app environment.”

They have also created a secure WhatsApp channel where relationship managers can interact with clients.

The next step for Citi’s global wealth management arm is real-time payment processing, Kundu said.

“We realize that one of Citi’s biggest advantages is our globality,” he said. “Having those payment corridors available in real time is really good.”

The company recently launched real-time payments in India, the UK, and Thailand. “We do see solid improvements in the uptake of this cross-border payment facility,” he added.