Citibank enhances digital banking

By Lee Kyung-min

Citibank Korea will strengthen its digital platform in a continued effort to improve customer-oriented services toward digitization, a forward-looking initiative among global financial institutions.

Under the goal of providing “real-time, ubiquitous and quality customer service,” the bank plans to attract 80 percent of new customers via online channels by 2020. It will also help a majority of customers become more active users of the digital platform by then.

The bank said the ambitious-yet-attainable goal will be achieved through its years-long experience and award-winning expertise in operating digital services.

It won the top prize awarded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the predecessor of Ministry of Science and ICT, in 2017, among many other awards given in recognition of its innovative, tailored and customer needs-based services.

Citibank was the first bank to have won the prize, mostly reserved for IT firms, the bank said.

The major achievement included the bank's 2016 development of a mobile app, which allowed online transactions without using the much-dreaded “public key certificate,” a time-consuming method of protection against fraud or other illicit financial transactions widely criticized as a hassle.

A year after the development, customer satisfaction experts are continuing efforts to maximize convenience for the Wealth Management (WM) service, offered to the bank's most affluent group of customers.

The most up-to-date information is provided through webpage design undergoing regular, timely updates for improved function and readability.

Users are better able to access the frequently used functions in a more simplified layout design on the webpage, including regular review of investment portfolios, recommended investment, balance inquiry, wire transfer, foreign currency remittance and other traditional banking services.

Such efforts are well received by customers, evidenced by a double-digit increase in the number of online users from a year earlier.

Over 72 percent of WM service users said they prefer the bank's digital platform. Some 69 percent of regular customers said so including 50 percent who use the mobile platform.

“We are proud to say we are buoyed by the figure,” a bank official said.

“We will continue to strengthen our digital platforms to best tend to the growing needs of both the tech-savvy and traditional customers seeking improved, more efficient ways of banking.”