Archive for » October 27th, 2010«

27
Oct
Paul Galant to head Citi’s new Global Enterprise Payments Unit

Citi announced the creation of a new business unit – Global Enterprise Payments — to develop comprehensive institution-to-consumer and consumer-to-institution payments solutions for the world’s largest global corporations and financial institutions, as well as governments. Global Enterprise payments represent a significant growth opportunity for Citi, in which it is well-positioned to be the industry leader.

Vikram Pandit, Citi CEO said, “With our unmatched global footprint and services infrastructure, no one other than Citi can capitalize on the opportunities in the services area. Enterprise Payments is a natural intersection between our consumer and institutional businesses that will engineer innovative solutions for our clients.“

Paul Galant will lead this and serve as CEO and will leverage Citi’s industry leading services from its Global Transaction Services (GTS) and Citi Cards businesses. He will work in partnership with Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi, CEO of GTS and Jud Linville, CEO of Citi Cards to ensure that the collective power of both franchises are represented in this critical effort. With his deep knowledge of both institutional and consumer payments, Paul will wield Citi’s industry-leading wholesale and retail payment capabilities across regions and organizations globally.

Prior to this, Paul has served as CEO of Citi Cards (where he led the NA Branded Cards and International Cards businesses through a period of massive industry and regulatory change, significantly enhanced its innovation pipeline and prepared the business for future growth) and before this as CEO of GTS.

Paul Galant, CEO of Global Enterprise Payments said, “This is an exciting new opportunity for Citi that will significantly benefit our institutional clients. By developing services that enable our clients to interact more efficiently with their customers, we will create incremental revenue opportunities for both our clients and for Citi.”

Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  Leave a Comment
27
Oct
Citi Launches Multi-Bank Global Trade Initiative

Citi Global Transaction Services (GTS) today announced the launch of an industry initiative  – The Multi-Bank Global Trade Program. Leveraging its global footprint, this initiative affords Citi an opportunity to address market challenges in partnership with other Trade banks while garnering benefits for clients.

The Multi-Bank Global Trade Program,  pioneered by Citi, seeks to establish an origination and funding platform for Trade banks with complementary market positions, thereby creating a diversified, granular pool of funded Trade assets. With this collaboration, participating banks would realize the benefits of asset de-recognition, credit relief and lower funding costs, which are difficult to achieve through a stand-alone market execution.

Emmeline Wexer, Global Head of  Trade Asset Advisory,  Citi GTS said “Each bank may rationalize its participation differently, such as a greater need for capital relief vs. funding and liquidity. However, collaboration among the participating banks, sharing a common goal of creating the most efficient funding platform to support the financing of global trade flows, is ultimately the most important ingredient to achieve success”

John Ahearn, Global Head of Trade, Citi GTS said, “This Multi-Bank Global Trade Program is another way that Citi is supporting the Global Trade market and providing ways Trade banks can grow their trade finance portfolio in an efficient and effective way.”

Global Transaction Services (GTS), a division of Citigroup’s Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world. With a network that spans more than 100 countries, Citigroup’s GTS supports over 65,000 clients. As of the third quarter of 2010, it held on average $340 billion in liability balances and $12.4 trillion in assets under custody.

Category: Uncategorized  Leave a Comment
27
Oct
ex-Citi executives are part of new appointments at JP Morgan TSS

J.P. Morgan , in its press release, announced new leadership positions in its Treasury and Securities Services (TSS) business, as the global provider of cash management, trade finance, custody, fund administration and liquidity solutions enhances its executive team to best serve the evolving needs of clients.

Donald McCree has been appointed CEO of J.P. Morgan Treasury Services. He will be based in New York and report to Michael Cavanagh, Chief Executive Officer, J.P. Morgan Treasury & Securities Services. He has an outstanding track record of leadership and risk management, most recently serving as an Executive Vice President in JPMorgan Chase’s Finance group, focusing on Treasury, Corporate Finance and Corporate M&A. Prior to that he was head of the Investment Bank’s Global Credit business, and over his career he held a number of other senior positions across JPMorgan Chase’s Investment Banking and Risk groups, both in the United States and in London.

Claudia Slacik has been appointed CEO of TSS in Europe, Middle East and Africa. She is based in London and was most recently was Chief Financial Officer of TSS. Her career has spanned 30 years in the financial services industry, and she has a breadth of finance, strategy, risk and management experience. Before joining J.P. Morgan in 2009, Slacik served in a number of positions in her 16 years at Citigroup, most recently as Global Head of Client Strategy for Citi’s $10 billion Global Transaction Services Group, prior to which she was Citi’s Global Head of Trade Services and Finance.

Tom DuCharme is now CEO of TSS in the Asia Pacific region. He is based in Singapore and has more than 20 years of financial services experience, with a strong track record in the Asia Pacific region. He joined J.P. Morgan from Deutsche Bank, where for the last five years he was the Head of Global Transaction Banking Asia Pacific. Prior to this, he spent 15 years at Citi, also in transaction banking.

Given TSS’s significant international presence and growth agenda, the regional CEOs will help drive expansion in Asia Pacific and EMEA, and will execute J.P. Morgan’s international growth plans in conjunction with the firm’s Global Corporate Bank.

Category: Uncategorized  Tags:  Leave a Comment
27
Oct
Visa, Paypal leverage on independent developers for innovation. Will SWIFT follow?

On 25-Oct-2010, Visa Inc, in its press release announced that its opening World’s Leading Payments Network to Independent Developers. Authorize.Net Developer Center Enhanced to Facilitate Creation of Innovative Electronic Payments Applications.

The Developer Center builds on Authorize.Net’s existing platform, which Visa acquired as part of the purchase of CyberSource earlier this year. Developers will have at their fingertips the resources needed for rapid development and deployment of payment applications that extend the value and power of electronic payments for consumers, merchants and financial institutions. These can be created to run on a variety of devices, from PCs to smartphones, and could support applications including eCommerce transactions, mobile transactions, person-to-person payments and payments at the physical point of sale. The Developer Center acts as a central community with tools and advice that developers at any level can use to readily connect through CyberSource to VisaNet along with other payments networks, and will be available free of charge.

“Visa has developed many innovative network-based payment products and services. But when you combine the power of our network, the resources of the Developer Center and the creativity of software developers, there’s no limit to the innovations that can emerge,” said Jim McCarthy, Global Head of Product for Visa. “Good ideas come from a variety of sources. We believe that opening our network to the developer community is critical to fueling innovation and driving one of Visa’s central goals, extending the benefits of digital payments to anyone, anywhere, using any device.”

Paypal everages on developers. It has dedicated developer community Paypalx Developer Network and is currently holding a conference Paypalx Innovate 2010 Developer Conference.

SWIFT is currently holding SIBOS 2010. SWIFT Swift CEO Lázaro Campos has launched the banking co-operative’s annual Sibos conference by calling for more innovation from bankers and technologists.

“Making innovation mainstream is a significant shift. Our innovation team has been going for three years and we have not even started yet so that is why we need your help.” , Campos said.

SWIFT has its own Developer Resource Center. But its restricted and is not freely available  for independent developers. Will it take the bold step of opening it up at SIBOS 2010 or will the Innotribe announce The Long Now?


Category: Uncategorized  Leave a Comment