Citi Debuts New Custody Tools to Meet Demand for Faster Payments

Citi has introduced a new suite of near or real-time custody solutions called Custody+, announced on Tuesday (Aug. 18). The announcement coincides with "institutional investors navigating compressed settlement cycles, continuous markets and AI-driven decision making," according to the bank. Chris Cox, Citi's head of investor services, stated that Citi has invested over US$2 billion annually in its platform strategy, focusing on speed, scale, and availability.

Custody+ represents this investment by building infrastructure to eliminate latency and drag for institutional investor clients. It shifts from a standardized custody model to a modular ecosystem of solutions adaptable to clients' workflows and operating models at scale.

Citi's Custody business supports clients in over 100 markets worldwide, including 62 proprietary markets. The new offering provides infrastructure for diverse operating models like digital asset custody, which Citi plans to launch later this year, beginning with bitcoin. This will be built on Citi's common digital asset architecture and offer a one-stop custody experience, integrating traditional and crypto custody capabilities within the same framework.

Citi's recent focus on real-time funding and single-event processing reflects a broader industry trend toward immediacy in payments. PYMNTS observed that payments are increasingly event-driven, triggered by specific actions within a company's operations, rather than batch-based or end-of-day reconciled. Additionally, Citi plans to expand its consumer cards unit by acquiring Kard Financial, a commerce media and rewards platform for banks and FinTechs.

The acquisition aims to accelerate innovation and deliver personalized experiences for customers while creating new opportunities for brands and merchants to engage and reward consumers meaningfully.