Fostering Collaboration to Cultivate Hong Kong Fin

HONG KONG, CHINA--(Marketwired - Nov 12, 2017) - Citigroup Inc. ( NYSE : C )

A group of ten undergraduate students from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School Asian Business Studies (ABS) program visited Citi's Consumer Innovation Lab in Singapore on November 3. This is the first time that the students were offered an opportunity to visit one of the longest established and leading innovation labs in a country that is ranked second amongst the global top five FinTech hubs ¹ .

It was the second time in two months that Citi Hong Kong arranged for local students to visit Citi's Innovation Lab to gain global insights on the FinTech landscape and a unique understanding on how Citi's innovation program works.

Ms. Angel Ng, Consumer Business Manager of Citibank Hong Kong, said: "We are committed to partnering with different stakeholders with the aim to cultivate next generation talents to meet the growing needs of FinTech in Hong Kong. By sharing best practices in promoting FinTech and fostering collaboration among Citi's offices, we aspire to create strong synergies and nurture talents in this space.

"Asia is an important region for Citi and is where the bank has made huge investments in spearheading the fast-growing FinTech development. In Hong Kong, Citi is a strong advocate of FinTech development, as evidenced by our recent sponsorship of the government-led second annual Hong Kong FinTech Week to further promote innovation to multiple audiences. In March this year, we launched the Citi HK FinTech Challenge to bring Citi closer to the FinTech community, and explore ways of working more closely with the different parties in the ecosystem. We were successful in attracting not only the FinTech companies but also university students. We are confident that all these initiatives will help to accelerate and uncover transformational approaches for the banking industry," said Ms. Ng.

Multinational students from the ABS program visited Citi's Consumer Innovation Lab in Singapore that comprises a Client Experience Center and a Client Collaboration Center. During the visit, the students were given a tour of the open office workspace that is specially designed to provide an environment that promotes collaborative working methods and facilitates rapid ideation, creation and validation. They were also given the opportunity to meet and speak with members of the Citi Fintech team, many of whom have different background and expertise but with one common trait -- a strong passion to create something new and exciting for Citi's customers.

John Hogue, Head of Consumer Innovation Lab, which is part of Citi Fintech, said, "It is with great pleasure for Citi Singapore to host this visit from CUHK students of the ABS program. As the ideation center for Citi's Consumer Banking business, the Lab in Singapore is focused on leveraging the latest technologies to accelerate innovation that transforms the client experience both now and in the future. We are pleased to showcase to the students some of the solutions that we have prototyped at the Lab as well as Citi's global API developer portal, the latter of which was instrumental in promoting a unique collaboration between Citi and the global FinTech ecosystem and enabled Citi's innovation efforts to thrive and scale."

The students were given live presentations and demonstrations by Paul Ho, Head of Strategy and Execution, and Ishan Sethi, Innovation Lead, from the Citi Fintech team in Singapore on some of the latest solutions which Citi has developed at the Lab. The students were also briefed on the Lean Methods and Design Thinking adopted by Citi which allowed the bank to assess, ideate, prototype and validate innovative ideas in record time.

Established in January 2011, Citi's Consumer Innovation Lab in Singapore strives to accelerate innovation to help solve critical business problems through transformational customer experiences.

About Citi Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

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¹ Deloitte's report "Connecting Global FinTech: Hub Review". in 2016