Citi Turns To Digital Asset Space To Improve Cash Management, Trade Finance

Published

2 years ago

September 20, 2023

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In less than a week after Deutsche Bank DB and HSBC HSBC partnered with other companies for digital asset custody, Citigroup IncC has now turned to the digital asset space to launch tokenized digital assets using its own wallet and blockchain.

Citi's Token Service will provide cross-border paymentsand liquidity all around the clock.

Read More: Deutsche Bank Joins Crypto Wave: Partners With Taurus For Digital Asset Custody

What Happened: Citigroups Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions launched Citi Token Services for delivering digital asset solutions to institutional clients using blockchain and smart contract technologies. For better cash management and enhancing trade finance capabilities, the service will integrate tokenized deposits and smart contracts into Citis global network.

Citi Token will convert customer deposits into digital tokens which can be transferred anywhere in the world. The client will not have to set up their own digital wallet and will be able to access the service through the banks existing systems. The bank will depend on a private blockchain owned and managed by the bank.

Find out how digital assets are changing the face of traditional banks! Meet and engage with transformativeDigital Asset and Cryptobusiness leaders and investors at Benzinga's exclusive event:Future of Digital Assets. Tickets are flying:Get yours!

In the first week of September, JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM was looking at developing a blockchain-based digital deposit token for enhancing international transaction settlements. The bank is likely to introduce this product to corporate clients within 2024.

The Regulated Liability Network: The offering cameamid Citis participation in a month-long test of a Regulated Liability Network wherein a unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other global banks also participated. The test will allow banks to simulate issuing digital money representing their customers own funds before settling through central bank reserves on a distributed ledger.

The result led to the finding that the use of digital dollars can improve wholesale payments.

Frictions related to cutoff times and gaps in the service window will be reduced, the global head of digital assets at Citigroups treasury and trade solutions division commented.

Also Read: Third Largest US Bank Citigroup In Layoff Talks After Management Restructure

As a pilot program, Citi served Maersk and a canal authority by digitizing solutions such asbank guarantees and letters of credit. The solution used in the pilot program led to instant payment capabilities to buyers and sellers which reduced transaction processing times from days to minutes.

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Photo: Shutterstock

Politics

Hadush Kebatu: Migrant sex offender deported after mistaken prison release

Published

1 hour ago

October 29, 2025

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Hadush Kebatu: Migrant sex offender deported after mistaken prison release

Migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu has been deported to Ethiopia following his mistaken release from prison.

Footage captured from Heathrow Airport showed the moment he was escorted on to a plane on Tuesday night.

The government says he has no right to return to the UK.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she “pulled every lever” to deport Kebatu.

“I am pleased to confirm this vile child sex offender has been deported. Our streets are safer because of it,” she said.

Kebatu was found and arrested by the Metropolitan Police in the Finsbury Park area of north London at around 8.30am on Sunday following a manhunt.

Last month he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl and a woman in Epping, Essex, just over a week after arriving in the UK on a small boat.

He was expected to be deported, but instead of being handed over to immigration officials he was released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday.

He spent just under 48 hours at large before he was apprehended.

The accidental release sparked widespread alarm and questions over how a man whose crimes sparked protests in Epping over the use of asylum hotels was able to be freed.

Ms Mahmood said: “Last week’s blunder should never have happened – and I share the public’s anger that it did.”

On Sunday, Justice Secretary David Lammy said an exclusive Sky News interview will be used as part of an independent inquiry into the mistaken release.

Speaking to Sky’s national correspondent Tom Parmenter, a delivery driver who spoke to Kebatu at HMP Chelmsford described him as being “confused” as he was being guided to the railway station by prison staff.

The migrant is said to have returned to the prison reception four or five times before leaving the area on a train heading to London.

Mr Lammy, who put Kebatu’s release down to human error, said he ordered an “urgent review” into the checks that take place when an offender is released from prison, and new safeguards have been added that amount to the “strongest release checks that have ever been in place”.

From Monday, new checks include five pages of instructions and demands that more senior prison staff sign off a release, according to documents obtained by Sky News.

“I have been clear from the outset that a mistake of this nature is unacceptable, and we must get to the bottom of what happened,” said Mr Lammy.

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