Citi Philippines awarded Best Foreign Commercial Bank

MANILA, Philippines—Citi once again won the nod for the Best Foreign Commercial Bank in the Philippines for the 14th consecutive year in FinanceAsia’s annual Country Awards for Achievement 2012. Hong Kong-based FinanceAsia, a leading financial publication in Asia, recognizes the best financial services firms in each country across the region with this award.

Citi Country Officer for the Philippines Sanjiv Vohra said the award is a testament to Citi’s continued leadership in the country’s banking sector. Citi has consistently won this award since it was introduced in 1998 by FinanceAsia.

“Achieving this award for 14 straight years demonstrates our unrelenting focus to serving the financial needs of our clients in the best way possible. We are truly proud of this accomplishment which gives more meaning to Citi’s 200 years celebration this year,” related Vohra.

2012 marks Citi’s 200th year of serving clients worldwide, maintaining a strong presence in large cities across the globe. The Philippines was one of the first markets in Asia where Citi established its presence. Citi is the largest foreign bank in the country in terms of customers, assets and revenues.  It is the only foreign bank that has entered and consistently ranks among the top 10 commercial banks in the country.

The editors of FinanceAsia commented that Citi during the past 12 months improved on its ranking in total assets, loans and deposits—cementing its position as a large and omnipresent foreign commercial bank in the Philippines.

“Citi’s corporate bank remains active in onshore and offshore origination of funding deals for local companies,” FinanceAsia wrote in the awards announcement.  “The bank is consistently one of the top three players in foreign exchange, in terms of volume traded in the interbank market; and recently upgraded its online trading platform FX Pulse to include pre-trading capabilities such as research, news feeds and charting options, as well as post trade services such as confirmations and reporting functions. On the transaction services side, the bank signed its first public sector client to its pre-paid card service in May—striking a deal with the Home Development Mutual Fund, or Pag-Ibig Fund.”

Though the years, Citi has pioneered innovations in the banking industry and taken part in building the country and enabling progress. It established the first term loans in the late 1950s, which were the precursor of today’s personal and car loans. In the early 1980s, it started promoting the convenience of electronic banking to its clients and launched an ATM network in the Philippines to enable round the clock banking.

In the 1990s, Citi introduced the first international credit card issued out of the Philippines, and also launched 24-hour banking with CitiPhone, the first ever call center facility built in the Philippines.

Citi also introduced the domestic US dollar clearing system and has since been the only bank mandated by the Bankers Association of the Philippines as settlement bank. It serves over 40 of the largest financial institutions in the country, including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Citi was also the first bank to be granted a full derivatives license by BSP, to introduce Global Depository Receipts in the Philippines, and to launch Cross-Border Trade Receivables Discounting program.

As it carries on its history of innovation, this year Citi became the first bank to launch a suite of Mobile Apps for users of Apple, Blackberry and Android smartphones. These allow clients to make banking transactions such as pay bills and transfer funds, as well as redeem rewards and learn about discount offers, anytime and anywhere.