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The desire for round-the-clock access has spread from consumers to corporates, said Sanjeev Jain, who heads digital channels and data in APAC for Citi's treasury and trade solutions unit, in a conversation with finews.asia.

«Digital adoption in the corporate world generally takes more time than the consumer world. But the coronavirus pandemic has led to significant acceleration,» said Citi’s Sanjeev Jain to finews.asia. «As you would expect, the speed of adoption in Asia is still faster than anywhere else in the world and this goes beyond just banking.»

The widespread prominence of e-commerce amongst the region’s consumers – especially mainland Chinese whose lifestyle’s have been embedded in the likes of Tencent’s and Alipay’s do-all platforms – has been acted as a major accelerator of digital adoption.

Cutting the Middlemen

And more than just the consumer side, Citi has observed increasing demand from corporates who are now cutting the middlemen and taking the beeline to end consumers through third-party platforms – a transformative move that changes business models, at the very least, to extend hours. 

«You can’t have an e-commerce platform close shop every Friday evening at 5 pm,» Jain explained, adding that over 1,000 accounts in the region had been opened digitally in the last quarter – nearly a 3.5-fold increase. «If commerce is 24/7, banking needs to be 24/7.»

Adoption is Not an Option

As expected, abundant demand for digital capabilities is coming from typical multinational companies looking to add distribution channels and online access to information or services alongside «digital natives» or companies that were founded based only on digital business models – a major driver that only emerged in the last decade.

But interestingly, the bank is also observing the growing realization from small and mid-sized firms that the old economy, brick-and-mortar approach to doing business is not sustainable in the long-term, even on the B2B side of things. «The ongoing crisis has also encouraged SME clients from our commercial bank to embrace digital,» Jain explained. «In some ways, it has acted as a wakeup call. Greater digital adoption is no longer an option for any businesses.»

Digital Channels

Citi’s corporate digital users access the bank’s services via three main channels: direct host-to-host connectivity; application programming interface (API); and traditional online access through desktop or mobile.