In Online Banking Site Relaunch, Citi Shows Off Why Simpler Is Better

When it comes to the look of online banking sites, less means a lot more for consumers striving to deal with their everyday finances. And this week, Citibank Inc. granted the gift of simplicity to its online banking customers by relaunching its web site with a much cleaner look while also offering users more robust PFM functionality. As a big bank, we give them total props for the overhaul.

“It’s really a whole new way of thinking about online banking,” Tracey Weber, Citi’s North American head of internet and mobile banking, tells Bank Innovation.

Core tenants of the web site makeover, according to Weber, include: cleaner design, intuitive user experiences and enabling “emotional engagement” with customers. The language is less “banker speak” now and more conversational, Weber says. All efforts are centered on engaging better with customers.

“A lot of what’s presented today [in online sites] is banking tasks: pay bills, transfer payments. When you think about the category, it’s way more than executing tasks,” she says. “ [Banking] needs to be more thoughtful.”

After viewing some screen shots of the relaunched site, certainly I can attest to my impression that the site is both easier to navigate and offers consumers, well, more. Rather than a “link farmland,” like Citi’s old site, Weber says the bank has moved over to something more simple and engaging. Part of the refined navigation means offering drop down “ mega menus,” which means an entire homepage is no longer devoted to links, for example.

For users, the online experience has also taken a cue from mobile technology and shifted to a horizontal dashboard, rather than a vertical one. This dashboard is core to anything customers do online, too. “They can do whatever they need to through the dashboard,” Weber says. “They can do everything they need to in one screen.”

Notably, the new Citi site also includes PFM capabilities thanks to a partnership with Yodlee. The new site aggregates third-party accounts, if a consumer chooses to integrate them, and offers tools like analyzing net worth and budget setting for users. But just because Citi will have more data from some of its PFM users doesn’t mean it will market products based on these deeper customer insights.

“It’s not really our plan at this point to market to the aggregated data,” Weber says, pointing out that using the features are completely optional for customers.

Citi’s revamped online banking site will gradually be rolled out to existing customers over the next couple of months and Weber expects the completion to hit before yearend. Additionally, Weber alerted Bank Innovation that its iPad app, which launched earlier this year, will benefit from added PFM functionality by 2012, too.

“It’s all about enhancing the customer experience,” says Weber.