Citigroup enables online worldwide contributions to PM''s relief fund

Our Corporate Bureau
08 January 2005

Mumbai: Citibank, the consumer banking arm of Citigroup, has announced the setting up of a special payment gateway to enable online contributions into the ''prime minister''s relief fund'' in support of tsunami disaster relief efforts in India. Contributions can now be made from all Visa / MasterCard / Diner''s cards, domestic or international.

All transactions via the Citibank gateway are exempt of merchant discount fees. The gateway can be accessed via a link on www.pmindia.nic.in, www.sify.com and on the Citibank consumer portal www.citibank.com/india.

Citibank has been an empanelled Bank for accepting contributions into the PM''s relief fund, since the Gujarat earthquake in January 2001 and this online gateway is in addition to the existing facility all Citibank account holders have to transfer funds online to the Relief Fund.

Relief Activities of Citigroup in India Immediately after the news of the tragedy, a specially designated account called the "Tsunami Relief Fund" (a/c # 0173804447) was opened on on December 27, to facilitate acceptance of contributions from both Citigroup employees world wide. Several of Citigroup'' s corporate clients and employees are routing their contributions through this account.

All contributions by its employees will be matched by Citigroup rupee to rupee to add to the overall corpus.

The total corpus will be utilised by two recognised organizations active in the immediate relief work in the disaster struck areas in India including The Indian Red Cross Society and Working Women''s Forum, Citigroup''s community partner based in Chennai.