Citibank launches mobile app non-customers can use
Citi will launch the Citi Mobile App for iPhone, which will include in-app account opening, a 360-degree view across all financial accounts and spending insights to help banking customers improve their financial wellness. Most importantly, they will allow non-customers to access the same capabilities through the app.
For more than a decade, Citi has consolidated its retail banking business, focusing on affluent customers and businesses in major cities in the U.S. and worldwide. More recently, Citi has streamlined its footprint, redesigned branches, introduced digital product enhancements, invested in wealth management, expanded their ATM network and accelerated the introduction of new digital features.
It appears the ‘sleeping giant’ is ready to wake up and disrupt the competitive landscape, however, introducing a new mobile platform targeting the increasingly digital consumer. Rather than building costly brick-and-mortar branches, Citi will introduce a digital pure play option.
Citi will leverage the trust that consumers have toward their bank brand, developing the digital offering under its Citi brand. Other major organizations have opted to build sub-brands to support digital banking pure play products. For instance, Chase recently introduced the ‘Finn’ digital app, Wells Fargo has introduced ‘Greenhouse’, while BBVA Compass acquired ‘Simple’ to entice digital natives. Similarly, Goldman Sachs has introduced the ‘Marcus’ brand to build savings and lending portfolios.
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