Citi is the leading global financial services company dealing with approximately 200 million accounts and has business connections with at least 140 countries. Citi's three major lines of business are Institutional Clients Group (ICG), Global Consumer Group (GCG) and Global Wealth Management (GWM), all of which are dominant players in their respective fields and significant contributors to Citi's performances in Singapore.
Since 2007, Citi's ICG has established itself as the leading providers of M&A advices, capital raising deals and foreign exchange operations across the regions. According to the The Asset Country Awards (2010), Citi recaptured the "Best Bank in Singapore" honours and awarded the "Best Equity House in Singapore". Citi was also the "Best FX House" in Singapore, according to Asiamoney's 2010 FX poll.
Citi's GTS offers trade solutions and securities and fund services such as direct custody and clearing, cash management and global custody to corporations worldwide with proprietary network spanning 100 countries. Citi remains as the Best Global Custodian Bank in Singapore (Global Custodian Major Markets Survey Results 2010).
Citi's GWM is one of the largest wealth managers in Asia with $160 billion of Asset under Management. CPB caters to customers with a net worth of at least $10 million and provides tailored services such as alternative investments, custody services and investment capabilities to more than 6,000 clients including half of Asia's billionaires.
For the year ended 31 December 2009, Citibank Singapore Limited (CSL) reported a net profit of $718.6 million, rose 2.1% from 2008 followed by Citibank N.A. Singapore Branch and Citicorp Investment Bank Limited with a net profit of $226.9 million and $101.0 million respectively. CSL is a fully licensed bank with Qualifying Full Bank Privileges in Singapore. Its total equity was S$4.3 billion and total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 27.07% which fulfils the minimum requirement set out by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The operating expenses for the three entities fell relative to the figures in 2008.
People have been one of the key priorities in Citibank with employment of approximately 9,000 staff in Singapore in 2010. Citi was voted as the Employer by Choice by undergraduates and achieved an excellent 81% in Voice of the Employer (VOE) this year. According to the Singapore Graduate Barometer 2010, Citi Singapore was voted as one of the top three graduate employers in the "Singapore's 100 Leading Graduate Employer Rankings".
II. Job Description
Firstly, SAM and SFE are secured systems that allow Citibank to receive messages from its clients. Besides ensuring that all the messages are attended to, routing them to the right department is as important. It is challenging as one has to first understand the content of the messages and the responsibilities of each department before being able to route to the right destination. Guided by experienced colleague, my understanding of those instructions has enhanced. Moreover, my knowledge of each department's duties has also improved.
The diagram below shows the flow of a SAM Queue.
As shown, messages have to be printed and forwarded to the respective units concerned. After routing the messages, a copy has to be printed and passed on the Client Service Officers (CSOs) to follow up with the client on the settlement process. The original copy will be kept for filing.
Messages that are routed to the wrong department may result in no action being taken especially when the instructions stated are not within that department's responsibility. In addition, it may cost unnecessary time in terms of communicating across departments to enquire before routing to the right destination. As a result, it may cause delays in fulfilling client's instructions and portray an unreliable image for Citibank.
To prevent and reduce operation risk due to human error, precautions are adopted. Such precautions include print screen to ensure all messages are cleared before closing and print message reports to ensure that the actions taken towards all the incoming messages are correct.
Secondly, the trades awaiting credit approval will be sent twice daily even during Singapore Public Holidays as Citibank operates globally. My responsibilities involve extracting trade details from the SECORE system and enter them into an Excel spreadsheet. This file will be sent via email to the credit department for investigation and advice of trade. Such details include client's name, currency and sum involved, reference number and value date in an Excel spreadsheet.
The aim of this task is to verify the adequacy of funds in the client's account before releasing the trade and proceeding with the settlement cycle. This process is important as a trade failure may arise due to the shortfall of fund. This may interrupt the settlement cycle and reflect badly on Citibank's reputation.
Next, sweep of funds is a daily task that involves verifying, matching and calculating cash amounts on the collated instructions against those on the calculated slip. The objective of this task is to ensure that the right amount is credited into the right client's account by checking on the base numbers and amount stated.
My role serves as a precautionary measure to reduce any mismatching that may occur. This is important as mistakes commonly arise especially at times when the account numbers appear similar or the comma is replaced by a full stop for the amount. Mismatching may cause the local custody team to credit the incorrect amount into the client's account or credit the right amount into the wrong account, both resulting the need to do a reversal. Any mistakes will cause inconvenience for the teams involved and impact upon Citibank's reputation in terms of its unreliable service.
Another work assigned to me is the MIS statistics, which is a record of activities completed by mainly Global Custody Support and Client Services. These records are collated on a daily basis such that the performances of these activities can be monitored against their expected levels at month-end. Such exercise is essential as actions can be implemented at an early stage to improve any under-performed or over-performed activities.
III. Learning Experiences and Achievements
A. Prevention of MIFT Fraud Online Training
The Prevention of MIFT Fraud Online Training is a compulsory exercise to be completed during our free time. This training is similar to the E-Learning exercise that we practised in school every semester. The aim of this training is to give us an overview of the MIFT process, practice and requirement, the possibilities of MIFT fraud and several red flags. Such red flags learnt include forged signature and client's rush for a call-back especially during periods before and after public holidays. As for a recent amendment in client's contact details, the CSOs have to verify those details for this may be a sign of fraud.
There were several fraudulent scenarios showed that enhance my understanding on the MIFT fraud. One of it demonstrated a change in client's contact details with a forged signature. The CSO was aware of the change in contact details but chose to avoid taking further checks as the signature looks similar. Eventually, the transaction turned out to be a fraud but it was too late for them to react.
Furthermore, I also learnt that MIFT processing carries potential risk that may cause huge reputation losses to Citibank. Fraud can occur at any stage within the process which enlightened me on Citibank's plan to reduce MIFT processing. Citibank may appear in the news headline for committing fraud or demonstrating inability to conduct proper checks throughout its operations. Furthermore, Citibank may face huge monetary losses due to the mistakes.
Additionally, my knowledge of the MIFT cycle has enhanced greatly. The diagram below demonstrates an overview of a MIFT processing.
As shown, all the messages will be assigned with a unique reference number and distributed to the respective CSOs to do a call-back. This call-back should be an outgoing call by the CSOs instead of an incoming call from the client. All records such as the reference numbers and the acknowledgement of receipt of document will be noted written down in the MIFT logbook.
All in all, the MIFT process and the prevention of MIFT fraud learnt during this internship program is a whole new learning experience for me as it is not taught in school. The knowledge learnt in Risk Management such as risk application applies very much in this case. Examples include reputation risk arising from the MIFT fraud and operation risk of skipping any requirements for MIFT processing.
B. Citi Operations & Technology (O&T) Event
In the Big Citi O&T was the first ever event that I participated outside of school. This event's objective was to bring all employees in the same building on different floors together and promote interpersonal and inter-department relationships. Moreover, it aimed to create awareness of the departments' functions and internal job opportunities.
Our team's task was to come up with games, quizzes, decorations and a brief showcase of all the departments' job description at our level. It was a tough process of planning and organizing. One of the challenges that we faced during this brainstorming process was the creativity and elegance in the decorations and display.
Initially, ideas were rejected repeatedly as new opinions were brought up. This had discouraged us at times as we did not have a clear direction ahead. After an aimless week, plans were finalised and the necessary materials were gathered. We also stayed back to touch up on the materials. The display board and decorations that we came up with is shown below.
On the actual day, the room was packed with people queuing for games, prizes and stamps for the lucky draws. The quizzes of different departments had put my knowledge into test such as the number of clients Citibank handles, the amount of electricity generated by Citibank and the types of information that should not be shared.
All the activities that took place within the booths were evaluated by the participants who cast votes for their favourite booth. Competition was intense throughout the event unlike the events I have organized in Co-Curriculum Activities (CCAs) and Interdisciplinary Studies (IS) module. In the Events Management module, we did not face any competitors throughout the event and there were less rejections and modifications to our proposal.
The skills acquired during the planning of Ngee Ann Outward Bounders (NPOB) camp such as time management and coordination are relevant here. All the skills were helpful as it provide a higher efficiency in planning. The only difference appears to be the competition that exists among all the departmental booths.
On the whole, this O&T event had been an eye-opening learning experience for me. I gained the opportunity to coordinate with people of different ages and people who shares different ideas. From this event, I learnt to be more optimistic and learnt that perseverance and team work is the key to success.
C. Communication
English is the common language used to communicate across all levels and departments. From this internship, I learnt to speak with more confidence and express myself better. Communication brings about better understandings and relationships among colleagues and provides a pleasant environment to work in. By inquiring frequently, mistakes caused by miscommunication can be avoided.
The communication skills I have learnt in school are applicable to this internship programme. From Business Communication module, skills such as attentive listening and paraphrasing are relevant here. Listening attentively to staff's instructions demonstrates my discipline and respect for the staff while paraphrasing proves that I understand what is being said and it enables me to clear any doubts.
https://www.citibank.com.sg/global_docs/prod/pr/2009Press/26May2010.pdf
http://singapores100.com/awards/winners-and-nominees-2010-latest/
http://www.theasset.com/storage/awardpdf/2010/1289879777CountryAwards2010_Southeast_SouthAsia.pdf
http://www.asiamoney.com/Article/2652473/Citi-and-HSBC-top-ASIAMONEYs-largest-ever-FX-Poll.html
http://home.globalcustodian.com/pressreleaseshow.do?id=76
http://www.citigroup.com/citi/global/sgp.htm
