Citi is rolling out a new travel and expense management system for its US corporate clients in an attempt to fend off competition from a wave of cherry-picking fintech startups.
The new jointly branded package has been developed in collaboration with travel and expense management provider Naveen.
The deal combines Navan’s all-in-one technology stack and Citi's commercial card products, leveraging the card-link technology of Navan Connect to create a seamless digital experience for Citi Commercial Bank cardholders.
Gonca Latif-Schmitt, global head of Citi’s Commercial Cards, comments: “Citi and Navan are now well-positioned to deliver a more efficient way to manage travel and expense programmes, with a platform that’s easy to use for both travelers and finance teams, while aiming to alleviate the challenges that sometimes come with expense reporting for cardholders.”
Citi supports more than 25,000 global commercial card programmes and seven million cardholders worldwide, with more than $42 billion in annual charge volume in the US alone.
Corporate expense management has been a long-neglected part of the bank-to-corporate relationship, opening the door to a new generation of startups from the likes of Brex, Payhawk, Spendesk and Revolut to help alleviate the burden facing companies with the offer of automated systems for administering expenses.
“This agreement validates not just Navan’s technology — but also the value of the real-time visibility and control over spend that Navan offers finance teams and traveling employees,” says Ariel Cohen, CEO and co-founder of Navan. “Before Navan Connect, banks were limited to offering their customers disparate travel and payment solutions. Today, Navan and Citi are helping to make travel and expense management easy for Citi Commercial Bank clients.”