US-based lender Citi, through its Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) arm, has made a new investment in UK-based payments technology company Icon Solutions.
In addition to the investment, the US lender is expanding its use of the Icon Payments Framework (IPF) to improve its micro-services orchestration architecture.
Citi said it is working on a multi-year programme of modernising its payment platforms.
The investment and expanded partnership with Icon Solutions are part of the programme to strengthen its technology and payment services capabilities.
Citi intends to use the IPF as part of TTS’ micro-services architecture.
The new payment platform is expected to enhance flexibility and advance the bank’s ability to respond to the rapid change in payment infrastructure and the regulatory environment.
Also, the platform will address the evolving client demands in a continuous, real-time, digital-first environment, said the US banking company.
Icon Solutions co-founder and director Tom Kelleher said: “We are proud to be working with Citi on their journey towards a truly efficient, flexible payments platform.
“By reimagining its payment 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 organisation.”
Citi’s payment modernisation programme will provide benefits, including true end-to-end ISO native payments, as per industry and regulatory requirements, and deliver rich data to clients.
The programme also delivers future-proof scalable, cloud-ready solutions, and API-driven interfaces to advance and improve client access to data.
Citi Services technology head Nick Nadgauda 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 payment volumes and improve time to market.”
Citi TTS operates in more than 95 countries, with membership in over 270 clearing systems, allowing clients to make payments in 145 currencies through a globally consistent interface.
With its ongoing investments, such as in Icon Solutions, the company aims to meet clients’ needs for feature-rich, low-latency, high-throughput, always-on borderless payments.
Citi TTS offers an integrated suite of customised cash management and trade finance services to multinational corporations, financial institutions, and public sector organisations worldwide.
With banking licenses in more than 90 countries and integrated platforms worldwide, Citi TTS will continue to offer digitally enabled treasury, trade, and liquidity management solutions.
Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions payments head Debopama Sen said: “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.”
