Citibank will invest heavily in technology as it continues the long journey of restructuring all of its operations.

“We accelerated our use of AI, arming 30,000 developers with AI tools to write code,” Chief Executive Jane Fraser said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call today. The bank also launched two AI platforms that can search Citi’s existing database to solve queries, improving efficiency for 143,000 colleagues, she added. 

The bank spent $11.8 billion on tech investments in 2024, Fraser noted, down 2% year over year, in areas including: 

• Digital innovation;  

• New product development;  

• Client experience; and  

• Cybersecurity. 

Automation and AI are a big part of Citi’s tech revamp strategy, Fraser said, adding that they will help the $1.7 trillion bank become more efficient and save money. 

Citi expects increased expenses of 4% YoY in 2025 to be temporary, as the benefits from these technology investments will allow the bank to eliminate manual processes and drive further efficiencies. 

The New York-based bank reported operating expenses of $53.8 billion, down 1.6% YoY, according to the bank’s earnings report. 

THE BIG PICTURE: Citi aims to reinvest the savings from technology into its operations for growth. 

“Most of the savings from the organization simplification and stranded costs will be used to fund the additional investments we need to make this year in both transformation and technology,” Fraser said. 

Citi is investing in its banking infrastructure, moving operations to the cloud, Fraser said. The bank started using cloud-based risk analytics systems last year. 

Citi reported spending $2.9 billion on transformative tech — risk controls, data management and cloud, for example — in 2024, up 1% YoY. 

The bank also signed a multiyear deal with Google Cloud in October 2024 to migrate its operations to the cloud and use Google’s gen AI solutions to improve operations and develop new products. 

BY THE NUMBERS: In Q4, Citi reported: 

• Revenue of $19.6 billion, up 12% YoY; 

• Net interest income of $13.7 billion, down 1% YoY; and 

• Efficiency ratio of 67% compared to 69.4% in Q4 2023. 

OF NOTE: Tony McLaughlin, head of emerging payments and business development, has left the bank after 20 years, according to his LinkedIn post on Jan. 13. 

This comes on the heels of a flurry of executive changes among top banks with JPMorgan appointing a new COO and Truist’s COO resigning. 

FORWARD LOOK: Dmitri Furman, Citi’s head of public cloud, will be speaking at Bank Automation News’ free webinar “Best practices in cloud migration for financial services” on Jan. 28 to discuss Citi’s cloud strategy. 

Click here to register. 

Register here by Jan. 17 for early-bird pricing for Bank Automation Summit 2025, taking place March 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn. View the full event agenda here.