Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the proportion of customers using corporate mobile online banking has increased significantly, and the number of customers logging in to online banking using biometric methods has also increased markedly, Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣) said.
The bank launched its mobile version of online banking — the CitiDirect BE app — for corporate customers earlier this year. It allows users to log on to online banking services using biometrics. Customers can also use this technology to log on to the desktop version of online banking for faster, simpler and more real-time financial services, the bank said.
The app provides customers with a fast, simple and secure banking experience, it said. Using the app, customers can authorize payments, check balances and cash positions, and manage users, it added.
Photo courtesy of Citibank Taiwan Ltd
To provide customers with more user-friendly and flexible access to online banking services, the app is compatible with the authentication mechanism of the existing dynamic password card, and it also allows customers to access existing CitiDirect BE online banking services through the use of biometric functions, such as fingerprint recognition or facial recognition, it added.
“Since the local COVID-19 outbreak intensified in mid-May and after the government issued a level 3 alert nationwide, many corporate customers have begun to implement work-at-home programs or divide people into different groups to work, while their transaction patterns and fund management has also changed,” said William Mor (毛偉麟), head of Treasury and Trade Solutions at Citibank Taiwan.
“We see the demand for digital financial solutions from corporate customers, and the proportion of those using CitiDirect BE mobile online banking is rapidly increasing,” he said. “Whether it is using a smartphone, tablet or a PC, the number of people logging on to CitiDirect BE using biometrics showed a significant increase in May compared with April, and we expect a more dramatic increase in June.”
“Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions provides the best digital financial solutions for corporate customers. Citibank redesigned the entire transaction process to provide an end-to-end digital banking experience for corporate customers to transform,” Mor said. “Through the digital solutions provided by Citibank, we have continuously and effectively assisted our customers and their business operations during the pandemic. Citibank will continue its commitment to becoming the digital platform of choice for digital business, and continue expanding the digital banking infrastructure to assist customers’ current and future needs.”
Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions provides innovative integrated services, tailor-made cash management and trade financing services to multinational companies, financial institutions and government departments around the world. It has the industry’s largest operating network, with banking licenses in more than 90 nations and a globally integrated technology platform.
FinanceAsia magazine last month named Citibank Taiwan this year’s “Best International Bank,” the 25th consecutive year that the bank has won the award. In addition, Global Finance magazine in September last year presented the bank with the “Best Corporate Digital Bank in Taiwan” award for the third consecutive year.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to