Citi Launches Mastercard Subscription Management Tool in UAE
The launch marks Citi’s first deployment of Smart Subscriptions anywhere in the world, and Mastercard’s first deployment of the capability in the Middle East, according to the release.
With Citi’s launch of Smart Subscriptions, the bank’s cardholders can view and manage all the digital subscriptions linked to their card in the Citi banking app, per the release.
“By integrating this advanced technology directly into our mobile banking platform, we are setting a new benchmark for transparency, control and trust in the wider payments ecosystem,” Shamsa Al-Falasi, CEO Citibank N.A., UAE and UAE Citi country officer and banking head, said in the release.
Rajeev Garg, UAE head of wealth at Citi, said in the release that digital subscriptions are becoming part of people’s everyday lives in technologically advanced countries like the UAE.
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“This integration delivers a more seamless and transparent cardholder experience, while strengthening our digital servicing proposition to help customers clearly identify subscription-related transactions and better understand their merchant billing relationships,” Garg said.
Mastercard introduced Smart Subscriptions in March 2024, describing it as a white-label subscription management solution for financial institutions. The firm said financial institutions can add Smart Subscriptions to their consumer banking offerings.
Smart Subscriptions enables consumers to cancel, pause and resume their subscriptions, as well as analyze and categorize their spending, see upcoming bills and receive personalized offerings from merchants.
At the time of the March 2024 introduction, Mastercard was piloting Smart Subscriptions in the United States and said it expected to launch the solutions in other markets later that year.
In Thursday’s announcement of the partnership with Citi in the UAE, Gina Petersen-Skyrme, senior vice president and country manager, UAE and Oman at Mastercard, said: “The introduction of our Smart Subscriptions solution is a significant step in our joint efforts to shape the future of payments in the region.”
Victor Nordenson, executive vice president and global account management at Mastercard, said in the release: “Our collaboration with Citi shows how Mastercard combines global scale with local insight to deliver innovation that can grow across markets.”
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “How Retail Subscription Merchants Can Win and Retain High LTV Customers,” published in August 2023, found that the ability to pause and resume service may be key to gaining and retaining customers in the retail subscription space.
