Citi’s head of fintech sales dishes on how the bank’s relationships are often a two-way street.
As open banking legislation rolls out around the world, the lines between fintechs and incumbents are blurring and collaboration is the hottest game in town.
Citi’s treasury and trade solutions division (TTS) is laser-focused on becoming a better partner to fintechs this year, according to exec Chafic Haddad.
TTS’s fintech business “has been the fastest growing segment over the last four or five years, if not longer,” Haddad said in a podcast interview with Tearsheet published this week. “It’s effectively growing about 25% to 30% year on year.”
With Haddad’s appointment late last year, the group is focused on becoming a “one stop shop” for its fintech clients to reach their global ambitions, through offering them payments, receivables, card, or cash-management services.
This emphasis on banking-as-a-service – where non-bank businesses integrate banking services into their own products – is gaining steam as a wave of open banking legislation around the world forces banks to become more collaborative.
It’s also often a two-way street, Haddad said:
Fintechs “often start off as clients and become partners, or they start off as partners and become clients,” he said. “This is a space where it’s not only an opportunity for us to plug these fintechs into our capabilities, but for us to plug into theirs as well.”