Citigroup said Monday (June 6) it plans to hire more than 4,000 people to join its tech team to help move institutional clients online following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jonathan Lofthouse, head of Citi’s markets and enterprise risk technology operations, told Bloomberg that more than a quarter of those recruits will join the markets technology branch as part of a push to grow that department.
“We’re trying to digitalize as much of our client experience as possible, front and back, and modernize our technology,” said Lofthouse. “Those firms that can digitalize fastest are going to create competitive advantage.”
The report noted that banks are in the middle of upgrading outdated tech platforms to make services available remotely for workers and customers alike. Citi raised its tech spending to $10 billion last year — a 10% increase — and other banks have made similar moves.
“Everyone in lockdown suddenly had to do everything digitally, whether that was getting groceries delivered or watching more Netflix,” Lofthouse told Bloomberg. “We’ve always seen the tech market to be competitive but particularly at the moment, coming out of the pandemic, we’ve seen a digital explosion across industries.”
See also: US Bank on Meeting the Evolving Digital Needs of Corporate Banking Clients
As PYMNTS pointed out recently, continuous innovation is more crucial than ever in meeting the needs of banking customers. Businesses want more effective and versatile digital tools for payments, loans and onboarding, and they expect these solutions to be transparent, accessible and seamlessly integrated into their banking platforms.
“Digital capabilities for business are driving real innovation and progress in the larger corporate space,” Rich Erario, executive vice president and head of global treasury management at U.S. Bank, said in a PYMNTS interview.
“Today, we’re seeing continued evolution of digital capabilities as commercial customers often ask for more visibility into the product onboarding process, faster time to product fulfillment and servicing, easier understanding of products available for specific business needs and a way to cut down on the amount of paper needed in the process,” he said.