Mobile and digital users grew at Citigroup last quarter, with mobile growth outpacing overall digital growth, the bank reported today.
The message in the earnings numbers released today is that mobile continues to outshine digital in terms of growth, and is the future of banking technology and user experience. To wit, globally, Citi has seen the number of its mobile users climb 62% to 18.6 million last quarter from 11.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. Digital users, meanwhile, increased by 26% to 29.1 million last quarter from 23.1 million users during the same timeframe.
Citi considers “digital users” those that use the bank’s online services.
The bank’s North American consumer banking unit had 18.3 million active digital customers as of 4Q18, up 5% YoY from 4Q17, when there were 17.5 million such customers. Of those 18.3 million digital customers, 10.8 million are classified as active mobile customers, up 12% YoY from 4Q17, when there were 9.7 million such customers.
In terms of quarter-over-quarter growth, active digital customers increased 1% from 18.1 million and active mobile users increased 3% from 10.5 million reported in 3Q18.
The share of Citi’s North American digital users that are mobile users reached about 59% at the end of last quarter, suggesting that Citi has perhaps another 7.5 million existing digital customers that could become mobile banking users.

“We continue to utilize technology to improve the client experience and lower our cost to serve, whether it’s by automating processes or enhancing our mobile channels and we’ll continue to rollout new digital capabilities throughout the year,” Citi CEO Michael Corbat said on the earnings call.
In December, Citi CFO John Gerspach said a combination of digital acquisition, customer-focused value proposition, and a national ATM network is how the retail side of the bank will continue growing, “not just gathering deposits, but growing and building relations.”
He said other banks were putting out a digital offering just to attract deposits.
“Our approach is to look at how clients are using our existing card products,” Gerspach said. “What do they value about those card products?”
Citi was the first of the big U.S. banks to provide earnings data for the fourth quarter. At around 1:30 pm ET, the bank’s stock was trading 4.5% higher. Most major banks had reported a rise in their mobile user numbers in the third quarter.
With the exception of Wells Fargo, the five largest banks showed double-digit percent increases on a year-over-year basis last quarter. Citi posted the largest percentage gain, a 13% YoY increase to 10.5 million users last quarter, although the bank had fewer mobile users compared to its peers.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and others will provide their fourth-quarter earnings reports later this week.






