TORONTO — Eighty percent of queries across Citigroup’s 96-country network — which includes more than 200 million clients — are payment status queries. 

Pre-validation capabilities could bring that number down for banks, Debopama Sen, co-head of global payments and receivables at the $2.4 trillion Citi, said at the Sibos 2023 event this week.

As payments technology advances, Citi’s payments-related queries have shifted from tracking the payment to validating the recipient, she said. 

During a payments process, early identity verification removes the questions like: “Where is my payment?” and “Did it reach the right beneficiary?” Sen said. 

“Some of that [validation] is post-facto, but I think shifting that to really creating a pre-facto validation will improve customer experiences significantly,” she said, noting that success comes down to adoption. 

Banks must push adoption — similar to the way they have pushed ISO 20022 — to make a majority of bank accounts available for validation, she said. “If people don’t join, it will not work.”