A large Department of Defense (DoD) service agency operates 3,100 facilities in more than 30 countries, making thousands of international vendor payments of all sizes each year.
The Treasury of this DoD agency sought a payables solution that would empower it to transform its check-based system to an electronic payment system for worldwide vendor payments. Managing its heavy volume of global payments while reducing costs and increasing efficiencies was its target. Further, all payments had to be integrated seamlessly into a new Treasury Workstation system. Obtaining access to a straight-through payment capacity would enable the agency to make payments to its many offshore suppliers at a much lower cost.
After responding to an RFP that went to all major banks, Citi was awarded the business for global electronic payments thru WorldLink® Payment Services. As one of the most comprehensive cross-border solutions in the marketplace, WorldLink provides the ability to make payments in over 100 countries and 137 currencies. Citi’s low-cost solution uses a host-to-host file transfer to deliver payment transactions into the required local clearing system; initial currencies included the Kuwaiti Dinar, Omani Rial, the Qatari Riyal and the Euro.
With WorldLink integrated seamlessly with its Treasury Workstation, the department has made its process more efficient, achieved faster settlement of wires for client payments, and minimized the risk of fraud, counterparty default, clearing and settlement, and currency fluctuations. Best of all, it has met its most urgent goals – the solution has reduced the number of on-site checks by 25% while increasing wire transfers by 188%.