Citi’s institutional clients in China, India, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam can now use fingerprint or facial recognition to access their CitiDirect BE Mobile App, Citi’s digital banking platform for institutions on mobile.

First piloted with select clients in the region in 2018, the CitiDirect BE Mobile App allows businesses to authorize payments, view balances and cash positions, and manage users. The app and biometric authentication capability will be separately introduced in additional markets in the region progressively.

Designed in partnership with clients, the biometric solution enables authentication in mere seconds and serves as an additional alternative for secure access to accounts. Prior to the new solution, clients would have to use MobilePASS – an app-based digital token – or physical tokens to first generate dynamic passcodes before accessing their accounts.

“The CitiDirect BE Mobile App, coupled with biometric authentication capability, now enables clients to manage their institutional banking needs anytime and anywhere,” says Keng-Mun Lee, Asia Pacific head of channel and enterprise services, treasury and trade solutions.

Over the past two years, over US$2.5 trillion of payments processed by Citi’s treasury & trade solutions business in the region were approved using mobile devices.

CitiDirect BE is available in 95 countries worldwide, across 26 languages and over 135 currencies. The platform provides a single point of access for institutional clients to Citi’s full range of global cash, trade, liquidity and investment services.