Citibank Launches New Mobile Banking Services

Citibank's New Mobile Banking Delivers Something Extra Online Banking Site Upgraded

Sydney, 14 October 2010: Citibank has launched a new mobile banking service that gives customers access to the first merchant based GPS locator service of its kind in Australia.

The service enables customers to use their iPhone to search more than 6,000 retail offers available through the Citibank World Privileges program, and locate the offers closest to them.

The program covers categories like dining, shopping, sport and travel across 16 countries in Asia along with Australia.

Research conducted by Citibank revealed more than 50 percent of its customers would use mobile banking if it was available to them and 48 percent wanted a service that would link them into the Citibank World Privileges program.

Citibank Head of Digital Banking, Michael Weeding said this was a new service for Australians and reinforced Citibank's aim to be a leader in digital banking. "Location based services used for mobile banking have traditionally focused on ATMs and branches. While we provide this functionality, we have gone a step further by using GPS technology to respond to people's lifestyle needs, like dining out or travelling.

"Based on their current location whether that's in Sydney, Singapore or Shanghai, our service tells customers the closest offer like getting 25% off a meal," Michael said.

"Australia is the sixth Citibank market across Asia Pacific to launch this application and the feedback from other participating countries has been extremely positive. Citibank's strategy is to focus on providing services that are global, simple, fast, secure and cost efficient and that's what we've done here. Being a global bank we have access to global platforms, technology and expertise which helps put us a step ahead and means we can bring the best ideas to our customers."

Global banking platform
Along with mobile banking, Citibank has also launched the second phase of its global banking platform. In March, Citibank Australia launched a new online banking site after being chosen as the pilot country for the global rollout. The first phase included features that enable customers to have a single view of their local and offshore accounts along with fee free, instant transaction capability.

The second phase delivers features that help customers manage their household finances:
* Personal budgeting allows customers to set personal budget limits across a wide range of categories and compare spending levels against their peer group using fields like income, age
* Multiple payments customers can schedule all monthly payments in one step
* Calendar View customers can see what account activity they have for the month ahead in a single view

Michael continued: "The launch of mobile banking and the upgrade to our website really complement each other. Customers now have the option of banking from their pocket and we expect 50 percent of our customers to take up the new service over two years."

Citibank's mobile banking service is available via an iPhone application or through traditional web-based browsers and replicates the majority of the functionality on its online banking site. The merchant based location service is only available with an iPhone.

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Kristen Kaus
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Citi, the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Citi's major brand names include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Banamex, and Nikko. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.au


SOURCE: Citibank