Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citi, says Global Enterprise Payments represent a significant growth opportunity for the bank.

"With our unmatched global footprint and services infrastructure, no one other than Citi can capitalise on the opportunities in the services area," he says. "Enterprise Payments is a natural intersection between our consumer and institutional businesses that will engineer innovative solutions for our clients."

The unit will be led by Paul Galant, who will serve as CEO, working in partnership with Francesco Vanni d'Archirafi, CEO of GTS and Jud Linville, CEO of Citi Cards.

Galant, a former CEO of both GTS and Citi Cards, says the new unit will develop services that help banks, corporates and government departments to interact more efficiently with their customers. The objective is to provide a single source alternative to the clutter of third party providers that currently compete in this space.

"As digitisation continues to take hold, there is a migration from physical currency to digital currency," notes Galant. "The information flows, the loyalty and the opportunity to target gets lost through all of these different hub points of connectivity between the ultimate service provider and the consumer. This is where Citi can really add value."

Citi has not disclosed details of the level of manpower or monetary investment released to back the enterprise.