Citi says its Hong Kong arm will be the first financial institution to deploy a mobile banking platform developed by Mobile Money Ventures (MMV), the joint venture it set up with South Korea's SK Telecom earlier this year.
The MMV platform - which is compatible with Apple's iPhone 3G - will enable the bank's Hong Kong customers to transfer funds from Citibank accounts worldwide, pay bills and view banking and credit card balances via their handsets.
Users will also be able to open and renew time deposits for local and foreign currencies and also get stock quotes, view market and investment news and make trades.
Citi says the MMV platform is set to launch in the third quarter.
Steve Kietz, CEO, MMV, comments: "As lifestyles become increasingly mobile worldwide, the banking industry is poised for a whole new way of doing business. Financial institutions and carriers have the opportunity to take the lead in the next generation of banking by delivering innovative applications, such as mobile banking."
Citi and SK Telecom established MMV in March to develop a mobile phone banking platform. The firms are reported to be investing $8 million each in the 50:50 JV, which is headquartered in San Francisco.
Last month the venture revealed plans to developing a banking application that will be compatible with Google's new mobile phone operating system, Android, set to be launched later this year.
Citi has invested heavily in mobile banking, introducing a service earlier this month to enable its 1.2 million credit card customers in the Philippines to use SMS to authorise payments for deliveries and services on their credit cards.
The bank has also teamed with insurance firm Prudential and telco mPay to enable customers in Thailand to make insurance payments using their mobile phones.
Meanwhile, in the US the bank launched an application last year which enables users to view balances, see account activity, pay bills, transfer funds, find a branch or ATM and connect to customer service staff.