Citibank, one of the largest banks in the world, has developed a smart contract-based service for businesses that guarantees instant payments.
Citi Token Services is the project (currently in testing phase) created by a banking institution present in more than 20 countries in Latin America alone.
As explained in a Press releasethe new service allows scheduled transfer of tokenized deposits, Guarantees instant payments and all-day operations.
The service also enables liquidity transfer between Citi’s 160 branches worldwide. This is a role for executives responsible for managing a company’s cash flow, investments, financing and financial risks.
Overall, Citi Token Services aims to improve companies’ cash management and trade finance capabilities. For this purpose, the permitted network integrates tokenized deposits and smart contracts into Citibank’s global network.
As the banking institution argues, institutional customers They typically need programmable financial services that are always on. “And Citi Token Services will provide 24/7 cross-border payments, liquidity and automated trade finance solutions,” the financial firm says.
Citi Token Services is nothing more than a Blockchain private/authorized, controlled and managed exclusively by Citibank. Because of this, customers do not need to operate a network node to access the benefits they offer.
A business-focused service
Citi carried out Testing the protocol with the multinational transport company Maersk. This was done with the intention of “digitizing a solution” that serves the same purpose as bank guarantees and letters of credit within the trade finance ecosystem.
In this way, Citi Token Services demonstrated “the programmable transfer of tokenized deposits that enable instant payments to service providers via smart contracts,” according to the bank.
The technology used in the pilot offered buyers and sellers a “fully digital process with instant payment options,” Citi said. The bank added that the service is now expected to “reduce transaction processing times from days to minutes.”
According to the specialist, the protocol allows corporate treasurers “Manage global liquidity just-in-time and in a programmable way.” Rugg also proposed this with Citi Token Services Time and gap-related frictions are reduced when offering the service.
Banks continue to make inroads into the cryptocurrency ecosystem
Citi’s launch of this service confirms that the company is a major banking and financial institution contributes fully to the ecosystem of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and its inherent technology. And since 2021, the company has been sympathetic to the emerging market.
As CriptoNoticias reports, Citi, founded in 1892 in New York, USA, developed its special unit to offer Bitcoin and cryptocurrency services in June 2021. This was his first step into the crypto asset market.
Since then, this financial company has gotten closer and joined the Bitcoin ecosystem other large banks that have decided to be part of the market emerging cryptocurrency.
In the United States, in addition to Citi, several institutions such as BNY Mellon, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, US Bank and other banks have entered the Bitcoin ecosystem for several months. Many of them by offering services such as custody.