API Playbook

Revolutionizing Open Banking

API
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2 Introduction | API Playbook Introduction | API Playbook 3

The API Phenomenon in Financial Services Shining a Spotlight on API Opportunities

In today’s competitive environment, businesses are focused on growth, better management of
payments and working capital, and providing an experience of instantaneity and seamlessness
to their customers.

To service these priorities, banks and corporations are jointly focused on removing the friction
The Financial Industry is Evolving associated with cash management from banking processes in a safe and secure manner. This
Everybody likes movies. In the past, to watch a film you would have to get includes accessing balances, reconciling sales proceeds against credit limits, sending instructions
dressed, drive to a cinema, buy a ticket and then find your seat in the dark to be executed and receiving confirmation of finality.
amongst the crowded masses.
Because APIs can be embedded in an organization’s operating software of choice, it reduces the
With innovations such as cable and Internet TV, we can now enjoy a film piped dependency on banking portals, enabling information to be received and actions to be executed
straight into our homes, relaxing alone on the sofa – in our pyjamas, if we feel directly and more efficiently from these platforms. This frees up treasury, sales, fulfilment and
Keng Mun Lee
Asia Pacific Channel and like it! And it is the same with banking – why go to a branch or log in to various service staff to focus on what they should do best – growing sales, managing their operational
Enterprise Services Internet banking sites when banking services can be piped directly into your processes and servicing their customers.
Head, Treasury and company’s infrastructure, complementing your sales and fulfilment models,
Trade Solutions, Citi operating controls and processing instantaneity? There are myriad ways in which APIs can potentially create significant value for organizations.
On one hand, APIs transcend a wide range of account functions, from extracting end-of-day or
intra-day statements to checking balances real-time, to obtaining accurate transaction status quickly.
Banking is Open for Business On the other hand, they can act as an avenue to directly connect with a bank to facilitate e-commerce
Open Banking is fast becoming a global phenomenon across the world’s markets. transactions, integrating the settlement process so that the end customers can pay through the
channels that you define. Additionally, they can be used as a new medium for boosting the efficiency
Governments are actively encouraging initiatives and rolling out frameworks to enable a structured of a treasury function. This diversity of service is a core strength of APIs as it promotes convenience
and transparent approach to data sharing between banks, non-bank providers and FinTech companies. and choice, and the ability to facilitate that convenience and choice through your own business model.
The European Union’s second Payments Services Directive (PSD2) and the UK’s Open Banking
Initiative are both well-publicised programs that mandate the use of standardised open APIs
(Application Programming Interfaces) to facilitate access to transaction and account data. Citi’s Value Proposition
As an international bank, we think and act globally. When we first launched
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), is encouraging financial institutions to adopt APIs APIs for institutional banking services, we immediately enabled them to
to drive banking innovation, consumer protection and transparency. The Hong Kong Monetary facilitate the most frequently used functionalities and to support almost all
Authority (HKMA) recently launched an industry consultation for an Open API framework. The payment types in all countries in which Citi operates. More recently, we
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has introduced the concept of tokenized payments launched an API onboarding portal to set up a consistent implementation
through its Unified Payment Interface (UPI); just as Thailand has done with PromptPay, and process for customers in all markets, which speeds up the API testing and
Singapore with PayNow. implementation process.

Authorities are also pushing for a breakthrough in cashless payments to help the digital economy Citi has extensive experience in advising corporations, e-commerce companies
reach its full potential. This is particularly true in developing countries. The use of APIs to digitize and non-bank financial institutions on what APIs are most suited to their
payments can drastically reduce settlement costs for merchants, while driving the growth of operating models and business objectives. Many are actively using APIs to
e-commerce by efficiently enabling account-based transactions and collections beyond the costly integrate our services in a wide variety of scenarios.
and often-limited use of credit cards.
Citi is also the first global bank to launch APIs that are embedded in Treasury
Management System (TMS) providers. This includes FIS, which has connected
APIs Power the New Banking Landscape its Trax corporate payment factory to enable seamless integration with Citi’s
core treasury management functionalities, covering payment initiation,
An API is a controlled conduit for the transmission of information between
transaction status inquiry and balance inquiry.
systems. It takes a message and tells a system what you want to do.
It then returns the response and supporting information back to you –
directly to the system that you operate.
Remaining Vigilant Against Cyber Threats
The future of the digital world lies in platforms that connect to one another Finally, as an international bank built on trust, cybersecurity remains a cornerstone of anything we
through multiple API services. This creates opportunities for greater automation do with digital experiences and connectivity. Thus, when considering APIs, you should always seek to
and integrated efficiency. APIs also help applications to be developed quickly and partner with an established financial institution with experience in managing digital security through
responsibly in a “future proof” manner, laying the foundations for superior a multi-layered approach that comprises holistic systemic, process and people controls.
customer-centric experiences.
Citi’s APIs can be used in highly diverse use cases – from enhancing processing efficiency in treasury
and finance management; to the integration of sales and customer acquisition incentives; to
providing a truly seamless experience in customer service. They are real opportunities available
today to help you achieve your organization’s potential for an integrated operating model, greater
operational efficiency and superior customer experience. We look forward to your feedback and
collaboration on this very exciting phase of open banking transformation!
4 Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions
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Contents

Seamless Client Experience

Instant Mutual Fund Redemption 6

Instant Loan Disbursement 7

Instant Refund Processing 8

Instant e-Wallet Top Up 9

Enabling International and Cross-Currency Payments 10

Integrating Sales Incentives

Instant Payment upon Goods Delivery 12 Seamless

Incentive Payment for New User Acquisitions 13 Client
Digitizing Sales Incentive Payments 14

Up-to-Date Account Information for Customer Service 15

Experience
Enabling Collections through India’s United Payment Initiatives
(UPI) Request-to-Pay 16

Enhancing Operational Efficiency

Real-Time Balance Reporting 18

Automated Country Holiday Schedules 19

Account Verification at Merchant Onboarding 20

Glossary 22
6 Seamless Client Experience | API Playbook Seamless Client Experience | API Playbook 7

Instant Mutual Fund Redemption Instant Loan Disbursement LOAN

The Company The Company

One of the world’s largest asset management companies that provides mutual Leading financial services company in India that specializes in providing
fund investments for institutional, retail, and high-net-worth investors. retail loans.

The Challenge The Challenge

In the highly competitive world of asset management, speed to market and the ability to provide the In the highly competitive landscape of retail finance, the company needed a solution that digitizes its
best possible service may make the difference between profit and loss. The company was looking to cash loan services, where approved loans may be disbursed to the borrower electronically. Furthermore
differentiate itself against its competitors by providing its customers in both the retail and institutional the company wanted to differentiate itself through exemplary customer experience by ensuring that the
space with instant redemptions of mutual funds. By doing so, the company would be able to position loan disbursement is instantaneous.
itself as a preferred investment service provider.

Customers may use the redeemed proceeds immediately to invest in other products, which promotes The Solution
greater trading activity and cross-selling of the company’s suite of investment products.

Pivotal to the solution are CitiConnect APIs that enable the company to make payments instantly at the
time of loan approval:
The Solution
STEP 1 STEP 3
To address these challenges, the company is able to tap onto CitiConnect API to facilitate instant mutual Individual borrower goes to one of the Upon satisfactory approval, the company
fund redemptions in a way that fits its workflow yet provides superior client experience: company’s branches to apply for a personal loan authorizes instantaneous disbursement of the
by pledging appropriate collateral said loan to the borrower’s bank account number
STEP 1 STEP 3 STEP 2 STEP 4
Investor (retail or institutional) logs on to Investor chooses mutual fund units to redeem While at the branch, the company performs the The disbursed loan is received in the borrower’s
company’s website necessary due diligence associated with the bank account before leaving the branch
STEP 4
STEP 2 Company processes redemption and investor’s borrower, including Know Your Customer (KYC)
Investor provides bank account details for the account is credited instantaneously upon credit checks using the applicant’s Aadhar
crediting of proceeds successful redemption identification number, and assessment of the
value of the collateral pledged

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:
Authentication Payment initiation Payment status
of company via Immediate inquiry to confirm Authentication Payment initiation Payment status
instruction Payment Service that payment is of company via Immediate inquiry to confirm
(IMPS) in India successfully instruction Payment Service that payment is
credited (IMPS) in India successfully
credited

The Benefits
The Benefits
• Increase rate of customer growth and asset under management (AUM) for the company
• Key marketing differentiator against competitors in market share and customer stickiness • End-to-end digitized cash loan application and disbursement service that reduces the risk of fraud

• Significant improvement of customer experience • Elimination of risk of theft or misdirected payments as all disbursement are cashless, electronic and instant
• Significantly enhanced customer experience, where loans may be disbursed in as short as 15 minutes
• Faster rate of loan asset growth through differentiation of service levels against the company’s competitors
Potential Uses

• Enable payments to virtual beneficiary details, such as email address, mobile number, and state Potential Uses
identification numbers, where the capability exists for selected countries
• Expansion of solution to countries that progressively support real-time payments • Extend instant loan disbursement to other convenient modes of tokenized payment details without
• Extension of solution to other services where instant disbursements may be a competitive advantage the need for account numbers, such as United Payment Interface (UPI) in India, PayNow in Singapore
such as insurance claims with minimal proof requirements, or non-life insurance policy redemptions or PromptPay in Thailand
• Expand instant payments to refunds for e-commerce purchases, where a purchaser may be reimbursed
the value of the purchase as soon as the item is returned to a local collection centre
8 Seamless Client Experience | API Playbook Seamless Client Experience | API Playbook 9

Instant Refund Processing Instant e-Wallet Top Up

The Company The Company
Global leading online marketplace operating extensively in Asia. Global payment processing company that offers e-wallet capabilities,
with ambitious country expansion and market share growth targets.

The Challenge The Challenge

Due to the explosion of online retail activity in Asia, the company is going through significant increase in To increase digital wallet adoption in developing countries with low credit card penetration amongst the
commercial scale. Correspondingly, the company is also experiencing an increase in the volume of goods local population, the company needed to grow its e-wallet business by enabling users to fund their
returned by customers for refunds. Its cumbersome refund process, which took at minimum several days e-wallets via methods other than credit cards. For such countries, funding via a user’s bank account is a
before the customer is able to receive the refunded amount, was emerging as an area of concern that viable and efficient digital alternative.
negatively impacted customer experience and discouraged repeat purchases from its customers.

The Solution
The Solution
By means of CitiConnect API, which enables e-wallet top-ups via a “request to pay” instruction from the
Working with Citi, the company is able to implement a refund process that incorporates CitiConnect API, user’s own account at any bank, the company is able to transfer funds either instantly or on a schedule during
which streamlines its goods return process and enables the payment of refunds to its buyers instantly: different times in the day.

STEP 1 STEP 4
STEP 1 STEP 3
User registers for an e-wallet with the company User is asked to approve the “request to pay”
Customer returns an item to the company by A payment instruction is then automatically
instruction
post or in person triggered and authorized for the bank to pay the STEP 2
refund amount User stipulates amount to top-up the e-wallet STEP 5
STEP 2
from own bank account Once approved, another API confirms to the
After the returned item is vetted, the company STEP 4
company that funds are debited real-time
calculates and approves the amount to be Customer is notified of the refund status STEP 3
(or successfully earmarked) from the user’s
refunded in its refund processing system Company triggers “request to pay” instruction
bank account
via API to the local real-time clearing network
(or direct debit network) STEP 6
The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs: With payment finality attained, funds are
reflected in the user’s e-wallet, which is available
Authentication Payment initiation Payment status for immediate use
of company via a choice of inquiry to confirm
instruction local payment that payment is
instruments successfully made The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

Authentication Payment initiation Payment status

of company via “request inquiry to confirm
The Benefits instruction to pay” that payment is
successfully made

• Improved efficiency as the refund process is integrated with payment instructions via API,
as opposed to separate manual processes between the refund processing system and the payment
authorization system The Benefits
• Improved customer experience which increases the customer’s confidence to be repeat purchasers,
as they are assured of faster receipt of refunds • Company is able to provide an alternative avenue for individuals who do not have credit cards to top
up their e-wallets
• Company benefits from significantly lower interchange cost as compared to that of a credit card
Potential Uses

• Compensation disbursement to airline passengers during flight delays Potential Uses

• Disbursement of goodwill payments in response to genuine customer complaints
• Trigger “request to pay” instruction as an alternative payment mode other than credit cards for
online shopping or transfers between e-wallets
• Payments may be made to virtual payment addresses, such as email addresses, mobile numbers or
government IDs, if such capabilities are supported in the country of the receiving party
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10 Seamless Client Experience | API Playbook 11

Enabling International and

Cross-Currency Payments
The Company
Leading Internet-only bank in Asia that operates solely with a mobile app and
provides a range of domestic and international payment services.

The Challenge

Having successfully launched a domestic mobile banking service to its customers, the company wanted
to enable its customers to make remittances in multiple currencies worldwide.

The Solution

In partnership with Citi, the company is able to integrate its mobile app services by means of CitiConnect
API, thereby enabling real-time FX rates quotation and international remittances:

STEP 1 STEP 3
User logs in to the company’s mobile app to
make a foreign currency payment
User accepts the quoted exchange rate and
confirms the payment instruction Integrating
Sales Incentives
STEP 2 STEP 4
The company uses an API to present an exchange Company debits the user’s account in local
rate quote for requested currency pair currency and instructs the payment in foreign
currency through Citi via another API

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

Authentication FX rate quotation
of company valid for a
instruction specified duration

Payment Payment status inquiry

initiation via to confirm that
cross-border payment is successfully
wires made

The Benefits

• Availment of a highly efficient foreign currency payments process to the company’s customers
• Company gets preferred FX rates via Citi’s global platform

Potential Uses

• Real-time FX rates quotation in an e-commerce transaction, where a buyer in a different country may
be presented a guaranteed FX rate, translated into an exact amount to debit in local currency from its
bank account
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12 Integrating Sales Incentives | API Playbook Integrating Sales Incentives | API Playbook 13
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Instant Payment upon Goods Delivery Incentive Payment for New User Acquisitions
The Company The Company
Prominent global digital food delivery company with large local affiliation Global cross-platform instant messaging and Voice Over Internet Protocol
networks. (VOIP) service.

The Challenge The Challenge

In the competitive food delivery marketplace, a steady supply of riders on motorized or non-motorized Coinciding with the launch of its new peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app in a new market, the company was
vehicles is pivotal to ensure that meals are delivered to homes and offices on time, thus providing superior looking to drive a highly aggressive customer acquisition campaign to increase user registrations to
service quality to generate repeat business. As the company continues with its aggressive expansion to build local market share. To do so, the company was looking for a way to provide instant incentives for
major cities around the world, it has to attract and retain a consistent supply of riders to deliver food to new user sign-ups.
customers. A key way to do so is to ensure its riders are paid promptly and as frequently as possible.

The Solution
The Solution
Using CitiConnect API, the company is able to incentivize new users to sign up for its app, where a rebate is
While its competitors are still paying its riders periodically (usually once or twice a week) or upon request calculated and paid instantly after the user successfully executes the first transaction:
by the riders, this company is able to revolutionize its disbursement process using CitiConnect API, where
its riders can be paid instantaneously straight to their bank accounts whenever a meal is delivered: STEP 1 STEP 3
User registers for the company’s P2P payment Upon successful payment, the app calculates the
STEP 1 STEP 3 app and funds it rebate amount and triggers a payment back to
Restaurant receives a home delivery food order Upon confirmation of delivery by customer, the the user’s bank or e-wallet account via API
STEP 2
from a customer company is notified and automatically triggers
User makes the first P2P payment transaction STEP 4
an instant payment of the delivery fee to the
STEP 2 according to published terms of the new user User receives a notification through the app
rider’s bank account
Rider is notified to collect prepared food from the promotion once the rebate is successfully credited
restaurant and deliver it to customer STEP 4
Rider received notification that the delivery fee
has been paid by the company The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

Authentication Payment initiation Payment status

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs: of company via real-time inquiry to confirm
instruction fulfilment that payment is
Authentication Payment initiation Payment status successfully made
of company via a choice of inquiry to confirm
instruction local payment that payment is
instruments successfully made
The Benefits

The Benefits • Growth in number of new user sign-ups, including capture of data on user demographics for tailored
customer experience and periodic promotional activity
• Instant fulfilment conferred competitive differentiation against other P2P apps that contributed to
• Improved disbursement frequency to riders helps with new rider sign ups and prevents rider attrition.
market share growth
Riders’ experience is improved as they can receive instant payments of their deliveries instead of
waiting for batched periodic payments
• Instant payment of delivery fee is perceived as a competitive differentiator to its riders, which
enables the company to meet its delivery commitments to customers and grow market share much
Potential Uses
faster than its competitors
• Extend for use in further promotional/marketing initiatives in the customer lifecycle

Potential Uses

• Similar arrangement may be used in the e-commerce goods delivery space where suppliers in an
online marketplace are able to receive proceeds in real-time as soon as buyers confirm delivery
• Service may be designed to work with both real-time and non real-time payments, likewise with a wide
range of domestic and cross-border payments
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14 Integrating Sales Incentives | API Playbook Integrating Sales Incentives | API Playbook 15
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Digitizing Sales Incentive Payments Up-to-Date Account Information for

The Company Customer Service
Global industrial and automotive lubricant company that sells a wide range
of oils, grease and lubricants via an extensive network of retail outlets and The Company
automobile repair workshops. World-leading retailer leveraging a network of in-country agents.

The Challenge The Challenge

Fueled by a two-prong mission to incentivize sales growth and improve operational efficiency, the company The company receives a significant number of calls daily from agents to inquire if a particular payment
was looking to digitize its end-to-end sales process and eliminate manual submissions of sales incentive has been successfully made to the agent’s account. If so, the company then confirms the shipment of the
claims by their distribution network. next batch of goods. Most of these queries are time-sensitive to enable the agents to meet sales targets.

To check if a particular payment has been successfully credited, the company’s customer service
receives an emailed account statement every 15 minutes from the bank.

The Solution Oftentimes, a particular payment is yet to be reflected on the account statement, and asking the agent
to either call back or hang on to the line for 15 minutes for the next emailed account statement is
impractical and increases operating costs.
Working with Citi, the company is able to implement a fully electronic sales solution that leverages
CitiConnect API, thereby achieving its twin goals of digitizing its sales process and enabling electronic
submission of sales incentive claims:
The Solution
STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3
Mechanic scans a QR code of Company tallies the total Company triggers the With CitiConnect API, the company can now trigger a request at any time; an account statement will be
the product at point of sale amount sold by each mechanic incentive payment based on sent to their customer service platform, where individual transactions can be reconciled directly against
using the company’s app on a daily basis to calculate amount sold directly to the agent’s account.
the incentive payable mechanic’s account daily

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:
Authentication Account balance
Authentication Payment Payment status of company inquiry
of company initiation via inquiry to confirm instruction
instruction real-time or non that payment is
real-time payments successfully made

The Benefits
The Benefits
• Customer service is able to accurately respond to queries due to the real-time receipt of account
statements with corresponding transaction details
• Mechanics sell more of the company’s products against that of competitors that do not provide
similar incentives paid in a timely manner • Operational efficiency through automated application of transaction details from account statements
to the company’s ERP system
• End-to-end efficiency, from digital capture of the sale to inventory management and incentive
disbursement, ensures no manual handling and minimized risk of processing and reconciliation errors • Enhanced customer experience as agents can obtain accurate information more efficiently

Potential Uses Potential Uses

• Other brick-and-mortar or direct sales industries that leverage incentive schemes can use a similar • Customizable trigger of API requests for account statements at varying frequencies or for specific
arrangement to increase the sale of their products and services durations – where requests may be initiated more frequently during peak customer service periods,
at start of day or towards end of day, or based on expected call volumes
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16 Integrating Sales Incentives | API Playbook 17

Enabling Collections through India’s United

Payment Initiatives (UPI) Request-to-Pay
The Company
World leader in direct selling of retail products.

The Challenge

In India, the company was facing a high sales drop-out rate through its website as its online payment
architecture required customers to manually fill in myriad of payment details such as card number, CVV,
expiration date, followed by one-time-password (OTP) and PIN authentication.

The Solution

To address this challenge, the company leveraged India’s UPI system to enable instant “request-to-pay”
from their customers, thereby significantly decreasing the time between point-of-sale and payment and
increasing successful sales. Enhancing
STEP 1
Consumer buys products from
company’s website
STEP 2
Consumer checks-out and
pays via UPI by providing their
STEP 3
Payment is confirmed
instantaneously and the
Operational
UPI ID (tokenized financial
identifier) to enable company
to pull transaction from
company sends the goods to
the consumers Efficiency
customer’s bank account

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

Authentication Payment Payment status

service initiation via inquiry
“request-to-pay”

The Benefits

Post-implementation, the company was able to reap the following benefits:

• Enable a new payment method for consumers via UPI
• Seamless customer experience and reduced sales drop-out rate

Potential Uses

• Extend collections to other convenient modes of tokenized payment details without the need
for account numbers, such as United Payment Interface (UPI) in India, PayNow in Singapore or
PromptPay in Thailand
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18 Enhancing Operational Efficiency | API Playbook Enhancing Operational Efficiency | API Playbook 19
19

Real-Time Balance Reporting Automated Country Holiday Schedules

The Company The Company
Leading global services provider for wholesale imports and exports. E-Commerce company specializing in cross-border trade operating in Asia Pacific.

The Challenge The Challenge

As treasury management continues to become more hyper-connected with the collection and reconciliation Companies that operate in multiple countries face the challenge of manual updates of country holiday
processes, speed and accuracy of information are paramount for quick and efficient treasury and finance schedules. Public holidays vary greatly from country-to-country, and some are oftentimes announced at
related decisions throughout the day. short notice by their respective governments.

Prior to this, the company relied on updated account balance statements, received every 15 minutes to Companies would normally update the holiday schedules in their systems by first contacting their banks’
check receipt of significant incoming payments, before executing FX related conversions from foreign service team located in each country and obtaining this information manually. This is a highly inefficient
currency to local currency, particularly during periods of high FX rates volatility. process, prone to human errors.

This statement delivery method, which relied on once-a-day MT940 statements at the start of the day, was Should a particular holiday be missed, there will be mismatch between the date on which the bank expects
followed by MT942 messages every 15 minutes throughout the day. This exercise was considerably to execute a transaction versus the company’s own records, which results in reconciliation problems.
expensive due to the additional costs and dependency on the SWIFT network.

The Solution
The Solution
To mitigate these risks, the company is able to leverage CitiConnect API to retrieve country holiday
Working with Citi, the company is able to receive account balances in real-time via CitiConnect API. schedules in real-time into their own internal systems. The APIs can be set to retrieve such information
Requests for account balances may be triggered anytime throughout the day on-demand. Updated on-demand or following a pre-set schedule, which is a particularly useful feature because ad-hoc holidays
account balance is then received real-time and flows into the company’s own treasury management can be declared at any time in any country.
system that provides real-time cash and liquidity visibility.

Finance personnel are able to log into their internal systems to view the updated account balances The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:
directly before making informed decisions on FX booking, investments and payment releases. This
eliminates the previous need to check their emails for intra-day account balance statements to make Authentication Branch holiday
of company schedule inquiry
these decisions.
instruction

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

Authentication Account balance

of company inquiry The Benefits
instruction
• Country holiday schedules are continuously updated in the company’s systems to ensure value dates
are reflected correctly for every payment, which also minimizes the risk of payment rejections
• Increase operational efficiency by eliminating manual work and input errors of holiday schedule
The Benefits updates via automated updates which saves time and resources
• Reduce reconciliation problems that are caused by value date mismatches between a company’s own
• Updated account balances now available real-time and on-demand records and banks’ statements
• Better-informed decision-making on treasury and finance decisions
• Integration of function with treasury management process
Potential Uses
• Cost-effectiveness due to disintermediation of traditional service providers

• Updated holiday schedules can flow into the company’s invoicing system, and be used to generate
revised invoices or customer reminders for updated payment dates
Potential Uses

• The company may assign a unique virtual account number for each customer, where updated balance
may be viewed on-demand by the specific personnel responsible for that customer
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20 Enhancing Operational Efficiency | API Playbook 21

Account Verification at Merchant Onboarding

The Company
Payment gateway provider that enables merchants to collect payments online
with best-in-class features and technology.

The Challenge

Every day, the company signs up a large number of new merchants, and processes a high volume in
transactions for them. Whenever a merchant is onboarded to the company’s payment gateway service,
it is required to provide its account details – so amounts collected may be accurately remitted to the
merchant. However, the company’s manual onboarding process, coupled with oftentimes erroneous bank
account information provided by merchants, resulted in a disproportionate number of rejected first payments
to the newly-onboarded merchants. The inefficiency resulted in many phone calls by such merchants to its
customer service, and reconciliation issues that skyrocketed the company’s operating costs.

The Solution

To mitigate payment rejections caused by wrong account details, the company is able to digitize its
merchant onboarding process and integrate it with CitiConnect API, which is able to validate the account
numbers at the time of setting up a new merchant:

STEP 1 STEP 3
Merchant creates a new account at the The company sends a “penny test” transaction

Glossary
company’s website to validate merchant’s bank account information,
and immediately checks that there is no return
STEP 2
of the test transaction
Merchant keys in required details including bank
account information, and submits scanned STEP 4
copies of documentation as required If the “penny test” transaction is not rejected,
the account is deemed correct and the merchant
is notified that it is successfully set up

The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs:

Authentication Payment initiation Payment status

of company via Faster Payment inquiry to confirm
instruction schemes available that payment is
in the country successfully made

The Benefits

• Bank account details are verified digitally in an automated manner during the merchant onboarding
process to ensure no subsequent rejection of payments
• Enhanced reconciliation efficiency by eliminating payment errors caused by incorrect bank account
details provided
• Excellent end-to-end merchant onboarding experience promotes loyalty to the company’s service

Potential Uses

• Similar “penny testing” transactions can be triggered by APIs to work in any supplier onboarding
scenario, particularly on cloud-based ERP systems
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22 Glossary | API Playbook Glossary | API Playbook 23
23

CitiConnect APIs

Account Balance Inquiry Authentication Service

• Account Balance API allows Citi’s customers to access • Authentication Service API
ledger and available balance allows Citi’s customers application
• Inquiry can be made for more than one account to securely log in to CitiConnect
API infrastructure and access wide
• Response is a customized camt.052 with only balances
range of API services as outlined
(ie. no transactions)
on this page
• Uses OAuth2.0 standard for
authenticating API calls

Branch Holiday Schedule

Payment Status Inquiry
• API to inquiry if a specific date
• After the Payment Initiation API, Citi’s in a country is holiday
customers have the ability to inquire payment • JSON format is used
status via Payment Status Inquiry API
• Payment Status Inquiry can only be made for
one payment
• Response follows ISO XML standards Payment Initiation
(pain.002.001.03)
• API to initiate payments through Citi’s
• From Q2 2018, Citi is able to push the payment
existing footprint globally
status via API back to customers application
• Payment Initiation requests can be made
for more than one payment
• ISO XML Credit v3 format (pain.001.001.03)
is used
Request To Pay – India UPI
• API to enable clients to initiate collection
through India UPI
• Other relevant APIs such as India
Transaction Inquiry and Push Notification Statement Retrieval
API are also enabled for clients to inquire
the status of the collection and also • API to retrieve the actual statement based on a Reference ID
notification upon successful collection (ie. Run ID) provided by statement inquiry API
• JSON format is used • Statement Retrieval requests may only be made for one
Reference ID (Run ID)
• ISOXML v53 (end-of-day statement camt.053.001.02) or
SWIFT MT940 is generated
• From Q2 2018, Citi will enable intraday account statement API

Statement Inquiry
• API to obtain account statements for a
given period. For example, requests can be Worldlink FX Rate Inquiry
made for more than one account and more
than one date • API to inquire FX rate from Worldlink given
currency pair combination
• Upon successful processing, a Reference ID
(e.g., Run ID) is shared to retrieve the • Response is Rate, Expiry Date/Time and Rate
statements at a later time Quote ID which can be used for Worldlink
Payment Inititation API
• XML format is used
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