Bright lights, big Citi

1. Citi has been operating in Pakistan for 50 years – could you share some of the achievements of your bank over these years?

Over the last 50 years Citi has contributed extensively to Pakistan’s banking industry and introduced a number of industry ‘firsts’ to the country – however, I think our biggest contributions has been in terms of our human resource.  I was at a government meeting once where 25 senior bankers were present and the majority of those bankers were ex-Citi people, including the State Bank Governor and the Finance Minister. This has certainly been one of our major contributions. In fact this is the case in many countries. In the Philippines, the Central Bank Governor was from Citibank and several of the largest banks there were run by Citi alumni. The exposure, the learning and the opportunities provided at Citi are incredible. Despite the global economic downturn, we have continued to successfully export talent from Citi Pakistan to other Citi locations across the world.

As far as banking products are concerned, Citi has by far been the leader in Pakistan in terms of introducing new ideas to the market place and performing innovative transactions. Overall, we continue to invest in Pakistan and have been here since 1961 – this is our 50th year in the country and we remain fully committed to this region.

2. What is Citi’s core focus and expertise in the digital banking space? How do you view yourself vis-a-vis the competition in the online banking space?

Citi has always been at the forefront of introducing innovative products and services to the Pakistani market. Digital banking is our core focus on the consumer banking front and we are investing time and resources into strengthening our ‘Citibank Online’ platform in Pakistan. Our aim has been to adopt a virtual banking strategy as our core retail banking strength and bring the best practices in the online banking space, from across our vast global footprint, to the Pakistani market.

We are proud to be the only bank in the country to have partnered with over 60 online payment partners to provide online payment facilities to our customers via Citibank Online (CBOL). These partners include schools, universities, clubs, charities, utility companies and internet service providers. We are adding payment partners to this list everyday; the key objective is to bring the bank to the home and workplace of our customers, so as to significantly enhance their convenience. Through our CBOL platform, customers can make online payments from any part of the globe and at any time, absolutely free. Moreover, with our latest inter-bank funds transfer facility, our customers can now transfer their funds online, across 18 different banks in Pakistan.

3. What has been the customer response to alternate channels? Is this strategy working?

Online banking marks a paradigm shift in the Pakistani financial services industry, as customers are accustomed to branch-centric structures and physically visiting branches to conduct their banking transactions.

However, our digital banking proposition has been considerably well received so far by our customers and target market. We have made a particular effort to educate them/create awareness about this new banking model through our marketing campaigns and the value-added features it offers to enhance customer convenience. Moreover, we are trying to strengthen our online banking model based on the lifestyle preferences of our customers, e.g. we have added various clubs including Sind Club, Golf Club, etc. as well as schools/universities e.g. LUMS, IBA, etc. as online payment partners, since our customers make payments to these institutions. In this way we aim to occupy the ‘passion points’ of our customers and enhance their overall banking experience.

At the moment our focus is on creating awareness of the ease that our Citibank Online platform provides for our customers. This is not a short-term strategy/ transformation and is bound to take time for customers to get acclimatised to. However, given the fact that Pakistan has approximately 20 million internet users, the potential for an online banking model is immense.

4. What is your vision for Citi in the future?

The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Citi is its globality: we are in over a 100 countries. No other bank even comes close. So globality is our key strength, which we will leverage to serve our clients seamlessly, as they conduct  cross-border businesses and as the world gets increasingly inter-connected. We have the ability to learn from other geographies and their successes as best practices.

5. Citi has contributed extensively to the community space in Pakistan, i.e. beyond banking. What has been your in-country CSR strategy?

One of our key principles at Citi is ‘responsible finance’ – we have tried to execute that in Pakistan through a long-term, sustainable community engagement programme as part of our day to day business strategy. Our focus has been on creating strong social networks and meaningful community partnerships, in order to impact sustainable development. Our business goals incorporate meaningful on-the-ground community development and volunteer initiatives, coupled with financial investment from the Citi Foundation. Our CSR focus is on three pivotal areas: microfinance, education and vocational training for poverty alleviation and generating sustainable livelihoods, with an emphasis on vulnerable groups and minorities, particularly women. We partner with various community partners including the Pakistan Microfinance Network, the Lahore University of Management Sciences, The Citizen’s Foundation, the Thardeep Rural Development Program and the Sarhad Rural Development Program on various community programs.

We have recently won two CSR awards at the Global CSR Summit and at the Asian CSR Awards, for our pioneering work in the microfinance and education spheres in Pakistan. Creating measurable, meaningful community impact is a core part of our strategy globally as well as in Pakistan.

6. You have been with Citibank since the 1980s, can you tell us about your experience with Citibank?

I joined the bank in 1981 in Karachi and besides Pakistan, have worked in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Slovakia and Nigeria and have also overseen Citi’s franchises in Gabon, Cote d’ivoire, Senegal, Cameron and Congo. These assignments were possible as Citi has a common culture, which allows one to transfer between geographies and deliver effectively. My overall experience with the company has been fantastic in terms of exposure to different areas of banking as I have moved around not only between geographies but also between a number of different functions.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2011.