Citi has partnered with Mastercard to enable its customers to make cross-border payments using only Mastercard debit card details.

Citi, which says it is the first global bank to offer the service, will utilise the bank’s WorldLink Payment Services, which support over 135 currencies.

The service will also use Mastercard Move, a digital payments platform.

Citi customers will be able to make cross-border payments from around 65 countries to 14 markets including Croatia, Denmark, Peru, Singapore, Turkey and the UK.

The bank added that it has plans to expand the service to further Mastercard-approved markets.

The service has a number of use cases, including insurance payouts, airline refunds, on-demand payments to freelance and gig-economy workers and refunds to customers.

“As the global economy has become increasingly digital, our continued investment in the future of cross-border payments helps us drive innovation at scale for our clients,” said Debopama Sen, head of payments, Citi Services. “This collaboration builds on our longstanding relationship with Mastercard and leverages the strength of our global proprietary network combined with other leading digital wallet and card capabilities to enable our clients to make cross-border payments as though there are no borders, no currencies, no constraints.”

Earlier this week, Citi announced it had gone live with a set of “next-generation” banking services powered by distributed ledger technology (DLT) and smart contracts.

Citi Token Services for Cash, which facilitates multimillion dollar transactions for the bank’s institutional customers, moved from a pilot to a live commercial solution after the technology was trialled in partnership with shipping agents CB Fenton and GAC Panama Shipping.

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