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Citi was one of the first banks to open its application programming interfaces to outside developers, leading a movement that's picking up momentum. For this and other efforts, Bank Technology News has chosen Heather Cox as its top 2015 Digital Banker of the Year.
June 9 -
A call to improve customers' digital-banking experience was the top theme during SourceMedia's Digital Banking Summit. Banks should imitate the Apples and Googles of the world, not each other, experts said.
June 12 -
In a Q&A, Hari Gopalkrishnan, who oversees mobile banking for Bank of America's consumer and wealth management operations, discusses the mobile trends of the past year, including the difference between what its technology is capable of doing and what consumers are willing to adopt.
October 8 -
Now a buzzword for disruptive technologies, Fintech was the name of a research project initiated by Citicorp in the 1990s, when the Citigroup predecessor was trying to shed its image of being "out of touch with market preferences."
September 25 -
The term has gone from a common brand name to a catch-all for innovative technologies in financial services to a somewhat patronizing plural noun to describe startups and their founders.
October 5
Citigroup has launched a unit in its global consumer bank dedicated to the development of its mobile banking services and promoted Heather Cox to be its CEO.
The division, called Citi FinTech, is in front of a reorganizing effort that will help the business move to a "smartphone-centric business model," Stephen Bird, CEO of global consumer banking, said in a staff memo Friday. It will strive to create and improve mobile-first capabilities across its range of client services, including borrowing and investing.
Bird framed the move as a revolution, meant to reflect the changing behavior of consumers.
"The world's consumers have converted to mobile and competitors are everywhere," he said. "We must act boldly to prepare our business for this new environment and the future opportunities of an 'always on' world. Today, we are taking a bold step in the Revolution of our business model."
Bird tapped
Citi FinTech will recruit staff internally and externally who will work collaboratively on cross-functional teams, which Bird said will eventually be emulated across the global consumer bank.
"Conceived of and built without silos from the start, [Citi FinTech] will be extremely lean with a flat organizational structure and an agile operating model," Bird said.
Fogarty said the team is beginning work immediately and expects to deliver a mobile value proposition in the U.S. by the fourth quarter of 2016.
