Citi is venturing further into fintech, this time with a digital payment service called PayAll that enables users to pay monthly rent and school fees using the bank’s credit cards, CNBC reports.
Available through Citi’s mobile app, the bank receives a fee for each transaction. The outlet reports that PayAll is currently available in Singapore where average transactions are around $3,500, but that Citi has plans to roll out the service to Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand by year’s end. The bank also says that additional spending categories are expected to be introduced over time.
Asia has been a testing ground for the bank’s digital and mobile lending services, which are then expanded globally, Sergio Zanatti, head of cards and unsecured lending in Asia Pacific at Citi, told CNBC.
“We saw a significant 44% growth in digital lending penetration in 2018,” he said, adding the new service will give customers “more value on their spend.”
“We saw a significant 44% growth in digital lending penetration in 2018,” he said, adding the new service will give customers “more value on their spend.”
The bank’s move into digital is a matter of survival as fintech startups claim an increasing share of the consumer banking market due to ease and convenience as well as distrust of larger institutions in the wake of the 2008 recession.
Given its Internet penetration and smartphone adoption, markets in countries such as China, India and Indonesia are attractive to institutions looking to test new financial products and services.
PayAll, for example, gives users the option of a “free financing period” when paying large payments such as rent. Additional perks include Citi reward points as well as airline miles, something that “represents a significant benefit” to those users, Zanatti tells CNBC.
