Etihad Airways signs Citi as international cash management bank partner

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has announced an enhanced agreement with Citi as its international cash management bank partner.
The new mandate, covering Etihad Airways' worldwide operations outside the GCC, will enable the airline to leverage Citi’s substantial investment in financial technology to further develop its cash management operations and help reduce costs.
Etihad Airways will now be able to utilize Citi’s liquidity management solution to achieve substantial cash optimization and competitive market rates through automated treasury tools, resulting in significant transaction cost savings.
Citi's cash management solution rationalizes account opening processes and moves the Abu Dhabi-based carrier to a fully automated and centralized account administration, and automated account payable and account receivable management tools to achieve better control and minimize transactional risks.
The enhanced partnership comes a year after the signing of supply chain finance (SCF) agreement between Etihad Airways and Citi enabling the airline to unlock liquidity and pay its suppliers almost immediately through funding provided by the bank.
Etihad Airways Chief Financial Officer James Rigney said: “We are delighted to have entered into this agreement with Citi, which is designed to drive more cost benefits for our business on a global level.”
Emre Karter, MD and regional head, treasury and trade solutions (MENA, Pakistan & Turkey), said: “At Citi, we value our strategic alliance with Etihad Airways, which is one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, and we're proud to provide global cash management.”
Citi is present in the MENA since 1955. It offers full scale corporate and investment banking services in Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Pakistan and Iraq.
Citi's institutional capabilities in the region include treasury and trade solutions, corporate and investment banking, capital markets origination, global markets and Islamic banking.