On June 30, 2009, Citi announced the launch of Citi Tap and Pay in the city of Bengaluru (India), thus bringing to India next-generation contactless credit card payments based on Near Field Communications technology. The launch of the Citi Tap and Pay pilot service will be one of the world's largest and most comprehensive pilots ever undertaken and is part of Citi's ongoing efforts to harness new innovative technologies to provide enhanced convenience, accessibility and mobility for customers. Reinforcing its leadership role in accelerating the adoption of this emerging technology, Citi has established a fully secure, scalable and interoperable mobile payments ecosystem in Bengaluru in collaboration with Nokia, Vodafone, MasterCard and ViVOtech.

Jeff Semenchuk, EVP and Head of Growth Ventures, Citi Innovation, said: "Citi believes contactless mobile payment services will be a key lifestyle driver for our highly mobile, international and increasingly urban customer base, and we are delighted to be the first to deliver this innovative service to them. Exceptional customer value creation needs collaboration and we will always look to work together with key ecosystem partners in applying smart, everyday, everywhere technology around the globe, while keeping the customer at the forefront of everything we do."