After making a mark for itself in areas of mainstream banking among large corporates, software exports, consumer financing and credit cards, multinational banking major, Citibank, is now aiming to capture a big slice of business in small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. Towards this, the bank recently launched ‘CitiBusiness Direct’, a comprehensive Internet-based banking solution, to cater to the small & medium business entrepreneurs.

Some of the special features of CitiBusiness Direct are

• Ease of use - the customer will need only a PC along with Internet access. A single number and password will enable him/her to access CitiBusiness Direct.
• Anywhere access - the account can be accessed anywhere in the world with a PC/laptop, modem and a web browser. CitiBusiness Direct is compatible with both, Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer.
• Across services - facilitates a consolidated view across all CitiBusiness products that the customer uses. He or she can view details of his or her current account, make deposit enquiries as well as find out about other products such as export loans, hire purchase and channel finance reports.
• Access restrictions - in line with business accounts CitiBusiness Direct permits customers two kinds of access to the account - the first is restricted to account viewing only and the second permits account viewing as well as transactions over the net. Hence the owner of the business can give account-viewing capability to one set of individuals/employees and can restrict account transactions to himself/herself.
• Transact - customer can issue demand drafts, make account to account transfers, issue cheque books and deposit slip books.
• Realtime service - CitiBusiness access is online realtime. Unlike many other internet banking services which feed from static databases, CitiBusiness Direct offers access to account information that is current to the last second.

Speaking on the occasion of launch Mr Sujit Banerji, managing director and area head for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, global corporate and investment bank said, "The SME segment is one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian economy. Across trade, manufacturing and services SMEs contribute to over 31 per cent of India’s GDP. CitiBusiness is our attempt to provide this dynamic consumer group the utmost service to stay competitive and profitable. CitiBusiness Direct opens up enormous cost-savings and efficiency opportunities for these enterprises by offering them convenience, cost savings and speedy access."

This was reiterated by Ajit Raikar, vice president and CitiBusiness head, Citibank India, who said, "We talked directly to small business owners around the country and realized that SMEs incorrectly assume that one has to be a technology master to take full advantage of the net. Through CitiBusiness Direct we are making technology user friendly for small businesses."

Mr. Raikar told domain-b that with CitiBusiness small business owners can now better track cash flow, keep expenses organised and maintain peace-of-mind. He said, " We want to be recognised as market leaders in the SME or the small & medium enterprises segment."

Ms. Deepika Bal, manager product development and CitiBusiness told domain-b, "Over 70 per cent of the transportation business comes form the small transporter. Through CitiBusiness Direct, we hope to capture a very large segment of this market."

Mr Banerji denied that the risk element in advancing money was higher in the SME segment. He was replying to a suggestion that with the opening up of QRs or quantitative restrictions, the SME segment would be the worst hit because of their inability to remain competitive. Mr Banerji said, "The risk element is there in any segment. In fact the NPA problem is more in larger in the large enterprise segment." He said the bank already has about 3,500 committed accounts under its belt and was looking at capturing about 40 per cent of the market share in the SME segment.

Citibank’s CitiBusiness initiative began globally in 1996 to address the financial needs of emerging local customers. It was launched in a set of 18 pilot countries, India being one of them. Through CitiBusiness, Citibank planned to extend its focus to small and emerging businesses across different industries. In India CitiBusiness began in December 1997 with the launch of hire purchase facilities from Citicorp Finance (India) Ltd. Today it has a diverse customer base comprising transporters, exporters, manufacturers and distributors/dealers of top tier companies. Its product range includes hire purchase, cash credit, bill discounting, term loans, cash management and export finance among others.