Citi and Ant International are piloting the use of Ant International’s Falcon Time-Series Transformer (TST) Model to deliver an enhanced FX risk management solution for their customers. Developed with aviation clients as an initial use case, the solution aims to offer greater payment solutions for the airline industry, which processes billions of payment transactions annually. The joint solution combines Ant International’s experience with airline payments and Citi’s robust FX solutions to help the bank’s clients manage their FX costs more efficiently. Ant International’s Falcon TST Model is a transformer architecture-based big data model with close to 2 billion parameters. By integrating the latest time series forecasting algorithms, the TST Model predicts future data points by learning complex patterns from large historical data sets using AI technology, the model helps businesses improve the efficiency and accuracy of their cashflow and FX exposure forecasts, allowing them to reduce hedging and overall FX costs. By pairing the Falcon TST Model with Citi’s Fixed FX Rates solution, an award-winning solution that simplifies the FX risk management process for businesses selling online in multiple currencies, the combined solution helps businesses mitigate the risks associated with currency fluctuations by securing FX rates for a defined period. FX rates are locked-in and agreed upon, giving businesses greater predictability in budgeting, pricing and profitability. With Ant International’s AI-enabled forecasting capability, businesses may utilise Citi’s enhanced solution to improve the accuracy of their sales and FX exposure forecasts. Ant International has already achieved an accuracy rate of more than 90% in the company’s own use cases and expects the solution to help the airline industry reduce its overall FX hedging costs as forecast accuracy continues to improve. By combining Ant International’s Falcon TST model with Citi’s Fixed FX Rates solution, Citi has successfully completed FX transactions for one of the leading carriers in Asia, reducing the carrier’s FX hedging costs in initial live transactions.