Citi ties up with EZ-Link on ERP payment solution for corporate clients

CITIBANK Singapore on Tuesday announced a partnership with EZ-Link to offer a seamless automatic top-up solution for the payment of Electronic Parking System (EPS) parking fees and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantry fees for its commercial card customers.

Citibank said that it is the first bank in Singapore to collaborate with EZ-Link on this business-to-business (B2B) offering, called EZ-Reload Corporate Service, that aims to change the way companies manage their corporate fleet of vehicles.

"Companies will be able to link their ez-link cards issued by EZ-Link to the EZ-Reload Corporate Service using their Citibank commercial card account, which will be automatically topped up whenever they fall short of the stored value for payment. Such payment solution offers greater convenience, cost savings and ease to the companies in managing their corporate fleet."

Up to 1,000 ez-link cards can be linked to a Citibank Commercial Card account. The administrative fees for the top-ups will be waived starting from Nov 1, 2015.

On EZ-Link's end, it said that the service is its first foray to provide business solutions to support corporate needs. "With the EZ-Reload Corporate Service, businesses are now able to effectively manage the disbursement and reimbursement of ERP and EPS usage of their fleet, eliminate unwarranted spending due to insufficient card value and improve operations through tracking reports. These capabilities will enable them to optimise their organisational framework and increase their operational productivity."

In signing up for this B2B solution, companies will also get to access the detailed usage and posting reports generated by EZ-Link for account reconciliation purposes. They can also leverage on the data provided by EZ-Link to help them plan and track the routes taken by their fleet more accurately. Most importantly, the cashless feature of the service will protect companies from having to incur unnecessary ERP fines in the event that their fleet passes through the gantry with insufficient funds in their cash cards.

There have been various payment solutions created for ERP use. For example, in May this year, Nets, in partnership with the Land Transport Authority and United Overseas Bank, also launched vCashCard, a virtual wallet service that allows motorists to pay for their ERP charges using their credit or debit cards or via their bank accounts without the need for a physical stored-value card.