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Citi (C) to Launch Citi Alliance - A Banking & Lending Program

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By this summer, Citigroup (C - Free Report) will commence offering banking and lending services to clients of registered investment advisors (RIAs), technology providers, broker-dealers and custodians via an innovative new program named Citi Alliance.

Citi Alliance will work with its client’s current external advisor relationship and aim to demarcate itself from other banking offers by facilitating a cogent array of several benefits. The benefits will include a dedicated Citi Alliance Relationship Manager and a round-the-clock servicing team, waived fees on foreign currency deliveries, global ATM fee reimbursements and waivers, and no foreign-exchange fees on purchases via the Citi Alliance debit card. The program will also offer relationship pricing on a premium travel credit card and mortgage offers, apart from waiving fees for checkbook orders and select wire transfer fees.

Citi Alliance program will also provide a platform to wealth firms, aiding them in providing their clients with an integrated banking and wealth management digital experience.

Per a Financial Service Network article, the US consumer wealth management head David Poole said that the bank’s new offerings result from the conversations that the bank had with its RIA clients. He further said, “We continue to hear more and more that they lack a banking and lending offering. We see Citi positioned quite well to fill that void.”

According to Poole, many advisors are eager for such an access like Citi Alliance because the capability to see a client’s full financial picture becomes advantageous for holistic wealth planning purposes.

Per the aforementioned article, Poole further claimed that Citi’s research suggested that offerings available in the industry today were “missing the mark for many advisors”, who seek first-rate products, premium client experience, high-touch servicing, faster deliveries as well as a wide suite of services.

Jim O’Donnell, head of Global Wealth Management, remarked, “By launching Citi Alliance, we are seeking to grow our client base while creating an incremental source of revenue through deposits. I’m confident this solution will be another way to deepen our client relationships and create new ones.”

Shares of the bank have lost 16.3% over the past six months against 13.4% growth of the industry.

Zacks Investment Research
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Citi currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here..

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the banking space are First Business Financial Services (FBIZ - Free Report) , Bancolombia S.A. (CIB - Free Report) and PCB Bancorp (PCB - Free Report) . At present, both CIB flaunts a Zacks Rank #1, while FBIZ and PCB carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) each.

Over the past year, shares of First Business have jumped 35.8%, while the stocks of CIB and PCB have rallied 13.6% and 55%, respectively.

Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for First Business’ current-year earnings has been revised 7.4% upward, while the same for CIB has moved 14.8% north. Moreover, current-year earnings estimates for PCB Bancorp have moved 14.4% up from the past month’s level.

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