Citi has opened its new Citi Innovation Lab in Singapore which is comprised of a client experience and client collaboration centre. The Innovation Lab is part of Citi’s Asia-Pacific global transaction services (GTS) business and caters for its institutional clients in the region. It leverages new web, mobile, supply chain and analytics technologies to engage the bank’s clients innovatively and to help create more effective solutions and products for them. Latest solutions can be test driven through live demonstrations in discussion with Citi GTS product experts.
“Innovation has underpinned our growth in the region and this first Innovation Lab in Asia underlines our continued investment in technology to support our clients and our growth,” said Anthony Nappi, Citi’s Asia-Pacific head of GTS, at the launch of the Innovation Lab in Singapore.
According to Citi, the Innovation Lab is fully interactive and globally-linked which allows the bank to connect with its clients, colleagues and experts through direct video and voice feed for discussions on future needs and collaboration. The bank says it currently has more than 10 clients that are collaborating on ideas and testing solutions for various business challenges using the Innovation Lab. These range from working capital solutions to cash forecasting.
“In a volatile and ever changing world it is important for clients to be able to test various scenarios and the impact they may have on their business,” said Nappi. “The Lab will play an important role in helping our clients navigate uncertain markets.” Nappi says the Innovation Lab overcomes the challenge of allowing clients to visualise new solutions that Citi develops for them. The process used to take weeks and months but can now be done in hours.
Citi employs 12 people including GTS product experts and people from outside the finance and banking industry in the Innovation Lab. The bank has partnered with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) for the Lab. Academics from NUS contribute to developing and refining ideas for current projects, while the IDA helps accelerate the development and deployment of business analytics.
