Citigroup has announced it is developing a digital consumer payments service for financial institutions.

The move will offer institutional merchants the ability to collect from a range of payment methods, including cards, e-wallets and new bank transfers such as Request to Pay and Open Banking.

The project will use underlying payment processing technology from Mastercard, which is integrated with numerous acquirers and e-wallets globally.

The project is the financial services giant’s first foray into the fast-growing industry for digital payments and is part of a strategy to enable digital commerce beyond the wholesale payments space.

It comes after FIS, a major US FinTech, agreed to buy payments firm Worldpay earlier this month for a record $34.83 billion.

Citi has expanded its global payments network by establishing direct connections to new instant payment schemes in over 20 countries so far. The company said it was also collaborating with FinTechs to incorporate up to 140 alternative payment methods into the service.

Naveed Sultan, global head of Citi’s treasury and trade solutions, said: “Our mission is to power frictionless payment acceptance with nimble technology.

“We want to extend our leadership beyond the B2B payment space by developing capabilities to enable institutions to collect from consumers in a globally consistent and seamless fashion.”

Share Story: