• Citi Token Services will help enable instant transfers globally.
• The new service will be accessible via its existing systems.
• Citi shares are down over 15% versus their year-to-date high.

Citigroup Inc is in focus today after launching “tokenized deposits” for institutional clients.

Tokenized deposits will help enable instant transfers

Citi Token Services will change deposits into digital tokens to enable instant transfers even outside of business hours to anywhere in the world. According to Shahmir Khaliq – its Global Head of Services:

The development of Citi Token Services is part of our journey to deliver real-time, always-on, next-gen transaction banking services to our institutional clients.

The multinational investment bank worked for months with Maersk to test this latest foray into the blockchain-enabled payment solution. Its shares are currently down more than 15% versus their year-to-date high.

Note that Citi Securities Services also partnered with BondbloX Bond Exchange as a digital custodian last week.

Citi’s wealthy clients won’t need their own digital wallet

The financial services behemoth is using a private blockchain to launch the new service and not relying on a public one like Ethereum, as per the press release.

Citi Token Services will, therefore, be available to institutional clients via its existing systems without the need of a separate digital wallet. Shahmir Khaliq also said today:

This development goes hand-in-hand with our industry leading work on Regulated Liability Network to create interoperable digital asset solutions on a multi-bank basis.

The New York listed firm recently announced plans of reorganising into five main divisions. Its peer JPMorgan Chase & Co is also exploring tokenized deposits but its efforts are still in the early stages only.