Citibank provides B2B card payment system to Pertamina

Citibank yesterday announced a strategic alliance with Visa International to launch the Citibank Procurement Card, Indonesia's first Business-to-Business (B2B) card payment system. Pertamina will be the first corporate card member when the system is launched early next year.

The Citibank Procurement card offers a more unified national payment and collections system and simplifies the payment process for large buying organizations and collections for large selling organizations.

Designed for high volume, lower value transactions, the card-based system delivers greater transparency and control by ensuring every transaction is recorded and traceable. This addresses the inefficiencies of existing paper-based corporate clearing systems in Indonesia.

In addition, Indonesian clearing systems are all payer-initiated, which means that sellers cannot obtain a guarantee of payment. The Citibank Procurement Card is the first payment mode to allow B2B sellers to confirm payment.

"I am delighted that Pertamina/PSC will be the first corporate card member of the Citibank Procurement Card, adopting the first B2B card payment system in the market. This is in line with our aim to simplify and effectively outsource the payable process in order to improve transparency, efficiency and productivity in managing purchasing decision," said Herucokro, head of

Pertamina/PSC on the occasion of MOU signing between Citibank and Pertamina/PSC at the Shangri-La.

Meanwhile, Country Corporate Officer at Citibank Indonesia, Michael Zink, said the card will continue to assist in providing infrastructure to support B2B e-commerce in Indonesia.

"We are committed to providing our corporate customers with innovative products and services to support B2B and we hope that Pertamina/PSC and other oil and gas companies will take advantage of the added value of this Procurement Card," he said. (*)