CitiDirect online facility launched

CitiDirect online banking, Citibank's web-based transactional banking delivery platform, was officially launched in the region yesterday.

CitiDirect has processed more than 600,000 payments worldwide worth more than $450 billion. The new platform offers seamless and secure access to an array of cash and trade management services through a single global platform.

CitiDirect, which is available in 85 countries and 12 languages, has already acquired more than 120 Middle East corporate clients including leading Fortune 500 firms and top-tier local companies, since being piloted in the region in October 2000.

Citibank officials hope to migrate all their existing Middle East corporate customers onto the service in the near future as well as convert new ones.

Shehzad Naqvi, regional head of Citibank for the Gulf, Levant and Pakistan, said, "Regardless of whether they are already doing business on the Internet, Middle East companies can benefit from an enhanced banking experience through CitiDirect."

Naqvi said no bank in the region offers services on the Internet as global and comprehensive as CitiDirect.

CitiDirect online banking enables customers to perform multiple real-time banking functions via one access point.

Customers can track and monitor transactions, view account balances in detail, conduct online enquiries and make online transactions wherever they are.

The product is easily installed directly from the web, and upgrades to the service occur automatically.

Furthermore, Citibank's customer service managers provide support remotely to CitiDirect.