Citibank, today, launched two new web-enabled corporate banking e-business solutions for its customers in India -- SpeedCollect 2000, and CitiCommerce. While SpeedCollect 2000 has been developed totally in India, CitiCommerce is an initiative developed specially for the Asia Pacific region, which was launched around four months ago in some other countries.

SpeedCollect 2000 allows Citibank's corporate customers to view and download account statements and cash management reports from the bank's ISO-certified Central Operations Centre in Mumbai, on an online real-time basis. CitiCommerce (www.citicommerce.com) -- Citibank's global business-to-business platform -- provides corporate customers with a full-spectrum interface with their distribution networks, including the functionality of product cataloguing, online order processing and invoicing, and complete settlement and reconciliation processes.

At a press conference held in Mumbai, Sujit Banerji, managing director, area head for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, Citibank, said, "SpeedCollect 2000 and CitiCommerce provide our customers with the essential link in today's e-commerce environment. Both are meant to provide service enhancement for existing customers of Citibank, which is a reassurance to them that we can keep pace with changing developments and needs in the marketplace. But also very important for us is word-of-mouth from our existing customers, which can help bring in new customers."

Amol Gupte, India head, global transaction services, said of SpeedCollect 2000, "The images of the underlying funds flow would translate into increased backoffice productivity for our customers and complete control over their distribution process." Talking of CitiCommerce, he said that "as a complete interoperable system, CitiCommerce can be easily integrated into a customer's existing systems and business processes. This allows significant reduction in the need for order-collection and data entry functions as well as other semi-manual processes traditionally associated with the accounts receivables function."

Explaining how SpeedCollect 2000 works, through a demonstration, Ravi Saxena, vice president, cash management, India head, explained, "The service allows you to download data on several formats; we can even customise here. Plus, we are the only bank in India to take imaging -- of deposit slips, return cheques, return memos and cheques deposited -- to customers." Taking the imaging USP further, he said, "Debits are even more important than credits, often. Through imaging, the customer can track things like why a cheque bounced, who's the guy who's not paid up."

For now, CitiCommerce, he said, allows only dealer link-ups. "We collect a lot from dealers for our customers. So we decided to link them up as a fraternity. The service allows all ordering and invoicing online and provides tracking and status." He added that this service is a value-addition to doing financial settlements and reconciliations, which is what banks normally do for their customers (see table: the red bars indicate existing cash management solutions normally offered by banks, while CitiCommerce claims to cover the entire cycle).

Both services surely require high levels of security (the information has to be accessed from Citibank's server). The bank informed that SpeedCollect 2000 is protected by the most advanced security technology, including Secure Socket Layer and Verisign certificates that encrypt the dial-up session between the customer's browser and the server. Plus, Citibank's telecommunications network infrastructure is claimed to have an in-built network level security.

Access to CitiCommerce is protected by a system of smart cards, passwords and digital certificates issued by an approved certification authority. "Order and invoice details are protected by triple DES encryption, while each fund transaction takes place within Citibank's existing clearing infrastructure," said Mr Gupte.

According to figures provided by the bank, its capital is in excess of $320 million, the customer base in the corporate sector is over 500 and NRI customers number 70,000-plus. Citibank has eight branches in India: two in Mumbai, and one each in Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. In the first quarter of 2000, it intends to open a branch in Ahmedabad. Citibank (India) has gained recognition throughout its own global network for the development of unique products and services. Suvidha, its first online system of banking for retail customers, has already been exported as a concept to some other countries where the bank operates. Hopes are high that if SpeedCollect 2000 works well, it could also be exported across the network.