The service, which is being rolled out initially in South Africa, has the potential to cut days off execution timelines for overseas transfers, says the bank.

Shahmir Khaliq, global head of treasury and trade solutions (TTS) at Citi says: "We’re investing heavily in digital technologies and platforms to simplify, integrate and automate our clients’ payment and FX-related activities, end-to-end. Our ultimate objective is to create frictionless payments that can be delivered electronically and uniformly, 24/7, to any country, via any channel and in any currency. This new service brings us a step closer to that goal.”

When companies initiate cross-border payments they must submit supporting documents to their banks to meet various FX control and regulatory reporting requirements. Until now, these documents were received and processed separate from corresponding payment instructions, requiring manual interventions to link them.

Under the new process, documents can be completed, processed and tracked digitally via Citi’s CitiDirect BE electronic banking platform. The platform also provides users with upfront details about the documentation and data requirements for different payment types. The bank says the single-window service cuts document fulfillment and processing times by more than half.

“Fulfilling and managing cross-border documentation has traditionally been a time-consuming, paper-based process - and a pain point for both banks and their customers,” says Amit Agarwal, global head of cross-border payments, TTS. “With e-commerce on the rise globally, and electronic payments becoming the norm, it is more important than ever for cross-border payment documentation to keep up with our hyper-connected world.”