Best Emerging Markets Platform – Citi 2026

Probably the big story from Citi in last year’s awards was the continued journey towards a more-connected Velocity – that work continued over the past year; this year’s theme may be leaning into the bank’s payments infrastructure and, more importantly, network to deploy the platform. This has seen Citi build AI into more processes, it has also seen it fully-embrace the stablecoin world with a host of PoCs and a few live initiatives.

A lot of this work feeds into an area where Citi has always been very strong – emerging markets. Being on the ground locally in so many markets always helps of course – but what is so impressive is how Citi has embedded Velocity, or parts of it, into so many areas of the business. It is becoming a backbone of the markets and services businesses.

What strikes the user so much with Velocity is how it is excellent in all areas of the FX experience – and how that all translates into emerging markets. The core remains Pulse, originally the bank’s corporate platform that has now been embedded into so many other areas. Citi is fortunate that the heritage of Pulse was very much about delivering a product that could be tailored to the often-unique demands of local markets – this means not only can it add a market as soon as the regulatory environment is outlined, but it can also adjust nearly on-the-fly, to what are often regs that change weekly.

The need to support so many different markets with their own individual characteristics means the sheer scale of Velocity can be intimidating, but thanks to work to improve the user experience, navigating the platform has become much easier – allowing the bank to do what it does best – deliver high-quality services across markets, with the added bonus of true local expertise.