Page 291 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

87. Discovered a new meaning of

the tagline of Citi Bank - "Citi Never

Sleeps"

C itibank is the fourth largest bank of USA, with assets of $1.36

trillion. Citi is the world's largest credit card issuer. Citi isn't just
a household name in US, but abroad also, doing business in more
than 160 countries and jurisdictions.

Citi was way ahead of the curve. Back in the 80s it touted the fact that
its eyes were on the whole world with its ads that proclaimed, "The Citi
never sleeps," not only meaning that it was operating everywhere, but
that it pulls out all the stops to serve its customers.

Experiencing the Citi Bank functioning in Singapore
Our company had credit lines approved from Citi Bank also. They had
been discounting our documentary bills of exchange drawn on our buyers
in Chennai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad, India with and also without being
drawn under Letter of credit. These documents covered our supplies of
goods to our customers. It was smooth operation for a year or so.

Bill of exchange is a legal document containing an unconditional order
to the buyer to pay a certain sum of money (the price of the goods sold)
to the banker of the seller on agreed due date. It is drawn by the seller
on the buyer. It is sent through banker of the seller to the banker of the
buyer. The buyer accepts its liability on the back of bill of exchange to
pay on the agreed due date. On acceptance, he gets the documents from
the bank and releases the goods from the transporter. The buyer pays
the amount on due date to its bank who remits the same to the bank of
the seller. Both banks charge a fee for this service. Seller's bank charges

288 | A Banker down the Rabbit Hole