Helping To Weather The Storm With A Trade Bank For All Seasons

Helping to weather the storm with a trade bank for all seasons 9 A global ally with local insights But what makes such institutions so resilient and reliable during a crisis? Scale, for one, can be central. Having global coverage can enable clients to receive consistent support and access to new products — wherever they may be based or do business. Scale can also open up access to vast networks of payables finance investors. The benefits here can be two-fold: first, businesses may be able to leverage a larger, more diverse investment pool; and second, sharing the credit support means those banks may be more diversified to credit risk and therefore may be better positioned to provide additional working capital support to clients. Citi’s global digital banking platform coupled with our local knowledge in many markets can be a great help to clients as they navigate complex markets. Helping them with changing buying patterns to minimise supply chain disruptions and helping to ensure timely payment to existing suppliers, coupled with onboarding new sets of suppliers quickly and digitally, is also in our toolkit. Given Citi’s global presence and global platforms, shifting operations from one market to another can help support a seamless experience for our clients. Additionally, larger banks can be more self-sufficient in many of the areas that smaller providers may need to outsource. For instance, having the funding capabilities and experience to develop solutions in-house can be a differentiator. This can enable banks like Citi to choose the most effective route for implementing a particular solution, whether creating it internally or through collaboration with technology providers, helping to avoid the risk of disruption driven by business setbacks. Examples • Citi implemented a global supply chain finance (SCF) solution for Halliburton in the pandemic that has helped to unlock an estimated US$150m+ in working capital globally and closed the gap on supply chain neutrality, working to align vendor and supplier terms, while supporting suppliers with competitive financing. The programme has more than 500 suppliers. Citi delivered for Halliburton in countries such as Oman and Iraq, demonstrating our global capabilities, and a truly global platform. Halliburton can see all their in-country financial supply chain activities on a single dashboard. • Citi helped Tetra Pak International, the food packaging and processing company, implement a global SCF solution. Tetra Pak wanted to ensure consistency and efficiency and align its SCF programme with the global approach taken by its finance function. Tetra Pak’s business model means that suppliers have relationships with multiple global buying entities. To make the SCF programme as straightforward as possible for suppliers, a truly global implementation was required. Tetra Pak developed an IT solution that covers 95% of designated countries and achieves automation via full integration with its ERP and Citi's platform.