Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, a division of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, increased technology spend about 40% over the past two and a half years, and will continue to invest in its platform during the next three to four years, said Shahmir Khaliq, global head of Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, during Credit Suisse’s Financial Services Forum on Tuesday.

“Our aspiration is to reduce the number of applications that we have to improve the resiliency and the stability of the platform that we have, to increase the scalability of the platform that we have, to increase the capability of the platform that we have,” Khaliq said during the webinar.

Treasury and Trade Solutions’ efforts to scale its platform is on track with other banks’ investments, according to Deloitte Insights’ 2023 Banking and Capital Markets Outlook report. “The end goal [for infrastructure] should be to build a modern, efficient, scalable technology platform,” the report noted.

Treasury and Trade Solutions’ tech investment in 2022, budgeted at $1 billion, was put toward tech platform infrastructure and launches, including its October announcement to roll out 24/7 Clearing, a service allowing financial institution clients to make cross-border payments at any time.

Citi’s transformation

Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions business is in line with the $1.7 trillion bank’s efforts to make “a simpler, more transformation and technology-led institution.”

“We build capabilities in our network, we invest in client experience and we continue to do all things that are really mission-critical for us to achieve the agenda,” Khaliq said.

Treasury and Trade Solutions revenues increased 36% year over year to $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 as the focus remained on business actions, including client relationships and new wins, according to Citi’s Q4 earnings release. The bank’s total technology and communication spend in the quarter also grew 13% YoY to $2.1 billion.

“A lot of the investment we’ve done in TTS is basically to keep our network and to make sure that our network stays resilient,” Khaliq said.

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