Citi’s Token Services for Cash has officially launched, allowing institutional clients to transfer funds between branches globally 24/7.
Citi Token Services for Cash facilitates multimillion-dollar transactions, offering clients continuous cross-border liquidity and payment capabilities across participating branches. The service operates on a private, permissioned blockchain exclusively owned and managed by Citi, ensuring safety and ease of use for clients, who do not need to manage or hold tokens to utilize the services.
After successful pilots last year, the service is now available for commercial transactions, with Mars being the first client to participate.
Mayela Stuparitz, global treasury director at Mars, stated, “This solution has enabled us to initiate and program instant payments and liquidity movement between our Citi accounts, reducing the friction caused by cutoff times and streamlining our transactions by tokenizing cash. With Citi’s private blockchain, we gain all the benefits of blockchain without any complexity or additional risk—our processes, reporting, and operational risk remain identical.”
Additionally, a related offering, Citi Token Services for Trade, has completed pilot transactions in collaboration with shipping agents CB Fenton and GAC Panama Shipping. This product aims to replace traditional transactions, such as guarantees and letters of credit, with smart contracts backed by tokenized cash. This completely digital process will facilitate 24/7 settlements between Citi clients and their counterparties when predetermined criteria are met, enabling automatic execution and provisional payments.
Ryan Rugg, head of digital assets in Treasury and Trade Solutions at Citi, emphasized, “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 leveraging Distributed Ledger Technology and smart contracts, Citi has developed a patented programmable payment and liquidity platform, which will reduce costs and streamline processes.”