Citi announced that its Citi Token Services for Cash has moved from a pilot program to a live commercial solution, facilitating multimillion-dollar transactions for institutional clients.

This marks a major step in Citi‘s journey to deliver real-time, always-on transaction banking services.

The service provides 24/7 cross-border liquidity and payments between participating Citi branches using a private, permissioned blockchain owned and managed by Citi.

Clients are not required to hold or manage any tokens to use the service.

Initially piloted between Singapore and New York, Citi plans to expand the service to additional branches.

In a separate development, Citi also announced the first real-world use of its Citi Token Services for Trade in global shipping, facilitating pilot transactions with shipping agents CB Fenton and GAC Panama Shipping.

Citi Token Services for Trade aims to streamline trade finance by replacing traditional processes with smart contracts backed by tokenized cash.

This allows for 24/7 settlements when predetermined criteria are met, and significantly reduces transaction times from days to minutes.

“We’ve long seen the potential for clients with Citi Token Services for Cash and are pleased to have the opportunity to now deliver those advantages on an increasing scale.

For clients, inefficiencies and pain-points like service windows and cut off-times will increasingly fade away as we drive more innovation in this space.”

said Ambrish Bansal, Global Head of Liquidity and Cash Concentration Products, Citi.

“The continued progress of Citi Token Services is a key component of Citi’s pursuit of real-time, always-on services for its institutional clients.

By using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and smart contracts, Citi has created a patented programmable payment and liquidity platform, which will reduce costs and streamline processes”

said Ryan Rugg, Head of Digital Assets, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi.

Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik