Treasury Digitization - Market Perspectives

8 Treasury and Trade Solutions API connectivity is also relevant in supporting e-Commerce transactions, by facilitating a frictionless end-to-end settlement process. For instance, APIs can enable instant refund payments to online buyers against the return of goods, or provide real-time FX rate quotations integrated into an enterprise e-Commerce platform. One Citi client, which operates an online food delivery service, has combined API and instant payments to transform its payment strategy and help ensure its drivers are immediately paid on delivery. Figure 5 shows that survey respondents are focused on enabling real-time visibility of bank account balances using APIs, to allow treasury and finance teams to monitor liquidity positions throughout the day. APIs are also being evaluated or pursued within payments to expedite payment status information and initiate payments. For collections, APIs are supporting real-time credit notifications, providing the opportunity to accelerate the cash application process, which can help credit and commercial teams to increase sales and improve important metrics such as days sales outstanding. Given the technical aspects of integrating banking APIs, it is recommended that treasury engage with the relevant stakeholders in their technology teams early on to support development, setup and testing. It should also be noted that API industry standards are evolving gradually, so integration for corporates that use multiple banking providers may be complex in the near term. However, a number of the TMS providers are now embedding facilities to transform multiple API standards into a compatible format offering resolution to that particular hurdle. Survey respondents are focused on enabling real-time visibility of bank account balances using APIs, to allow treasury and finance teams to monitor liquidity positions throughout the day.