Citigroup Wins Travel And Entertainment Control Contract From BASF

Citigroup Global Transaction Services says BASF has appointed it to provide its employees with Visa branded travel and entertainment corporate expense cards across Europe. "We are pleased to provide BASF with a commercial card solution that will help them run

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Citigroup Global Transaction Services says BASF has appointed it to provide its employees with Visa-branded travel and entertainment corporate expense cards across Europe.

“We are pleased to provide BASF with a commercial card solution that will help them run their business more efficiently. This appointment deepens a long-standing relationship between BASF and Citigroup,” says Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi, head of Citigroup’s Global Transaction Services business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Over 5,200 cards have been issued to BASF employees already in Germany with plans to expand the programme across Europe. Citibank’s proprietary issuing platform was an important criteria in BASF’s selection process.

BASF will use Citibank Custom Reporting System, a proprietary Web-based electronic query tool to analyze their T&E spending patterns, and the Citibank Global Data Repository to access data gathered from hotels, carrental agencies and airlines. The information gleaned from the Repository and the business intelligence tool, aims to allow BASF to better negotiate with vendors, enforce compliance with corporate T&E policies and make more informed, efficient business decisions. BASF will also gain transaction processing efficiencies, as all commercial card data will be consolidated from one provider.

Citigroup says travel and entertainment expenses represent the second largest controllable expense for a company, after salaries – often up to 10 percent of all expenses and a half percent of total sales. In Europe, travel and entertainment expenses is a EUR 40 billion market and EUR 250 billion market globally.

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