Citi Commercial Bank (CCB), which serves emerging corporate clients with revenues of up to US$1 billion annually, has introduced digital account opening for new clients in Australia, Hong Kong, India and Singapore, through its Gateway portal.

The portal’s launch complements the bank’s onboarding solution, which supports digital account opening for the bank’s existing clients and is available in 10 markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Through the portal and onboarding solution close to 70% of the its total account opening volumes in the region are now achieved through digital channels.

For new clients, the web-based portal replaces paper-based documentation, eliminates the need for repetitive data entry, and enables new clients to digitally complete their know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. Electronic signatures are also used to facilitate the execution of documents digitally. In addition to digital account opening, within three days, the portal will be further built out to support lending and portfolio management services.

Clients will be able to initiate loan requests and complete credit inquiry forms through the portal which will also push real-time status updates throughout the loan fulfilment process. Supporting client operations, the portal will also serve as a platform through which clients can upload and supply information to Citi and review their existing positions with the bank.

“Our prioritization of digitization and technology is aligned with our clients’ own focus areas,” says Rajat Madhok, CCB’s Asia-Pacific head. “Digitization is high on the agenda for emerging corporates, particularly on the back of the ongoing pandemic as they look to operate with greater agility and speed.”

Last year, CCB piloted an artificial intelligence-enabled credit underwriting tool, AI. Sight, to support credit processes and review. It has shortened credit review and approval process, enables the business to prioritize yet streamline due diligence efforts, while mitigating new credit portfolio risks that have emerged out of the pandemic.

Using optical character recognition and machine-learning models, the tool auto-scans credit documents, including bank statements, and is able to flag irregularities and abnormal loan utilization. Based on the data, it can identify trends and compute relevant metrics required to make credit approval decisions. Since it was first piloted in Hong Kong, the tool has been launched in India and will be launched in China next.