Citi’s Pathways to Progress and Inclusive finance

Pathway to progress and Inclusive finance are  the two Sustainable development goal initiative by CitiBank mainly focuses on the the Goal 8, which is Decent work and economic growth. Citi promotes sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. 
 
In the next 20 years, there will be a significant amount of young individuals who are unemployed. The economy will continue to suffer significantly from youth unemployment. Citi has already developed a plan named "Pathway to Progress" to address this issue. The Citi Foundation launched this programme in 2014 with an initial commitment of $50 million to increase employability and generate at least 100,000 employment in the country's largest cities. Citi has enlarged the strategy and invested an extra $100 million to increase employability to 500,000 in 2016 after the aforementioned programme was completed successfully. Citi has partnered with numerous governments and colleges to develop the job opportunities necessary to meet these objectives.

 
“The Citi Foundation’s focus on youth unemployment also directly contributes to SDG 4 — particularly target 4.4, which aspires, by 2030, to substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.”- Citi
 
 

Citi and the SDGs

SDGs stands for Sustainable Development Goals, which were implemented by United Nations in. 2015 and the aim is to achieve these goals by the end of 2030. There are 17 goals and 169 targets designed to guide. Citi joined with the UN and other members in 2019 to work towards the goals. They are as follows. 
 

The main aims of Citi includes “No poverty, Zero Hunger, Access to healthcare, education, clean water and clean energy, and gender equality”. It is noted that by 2030, at least $12trillion can be unlocked and can create over 380 million Jobs. – Business and Sustainable Development Commission.
 
Citi has divided SDGs into 7 main categories which focuses on the 7 SDGs. These as follows;
 
·       $100 Billion Environmental Finance Goal- This initiative will mainly focuses on the Goal 7 and Goal 13. Citi has plans to lend almost $100 billion towards creating solutions to the environmental changes.
 
·       Citi for Cities- It was noted that by the end of 2050, 70% of global population will be living in the cities. Citi will be providing finances to central governments and business to build the infrastructure. Goal 9 and Goal 11 will be achieved with this plan.
 
·       Pathways to Progress- During 2014 Citi has announced this programme, committing to boost over employability to over 100k young people in 10 major US cities.This plan will mainly focuses on the Goal 8
 
·       Inclusive Finance- This initiative will focus on the Goal 8 and Goal 9. Citi’s main aim is to provide finance to all, which includes increasing the access to small ventures. 
 
 
·       Women’s Economic Empowerment – Gender equality, Goal 5 will be achieved through this initiative. It is noted that  Citi’s main priorities are Diversity and Inclusion. The firm is promoting gender equality within the company.  
 
·       Open Innovation – Goal 9 will be the main focus of this initiative. Technologies are changing much faster that expected. Open innovation plan includes programs developed by Citi, for example; Citi Mobile Challenge, Data scientist challenge etc..
 
 
·       Partnerships- This initiative will mainly focuses on the Goal 17. Citi currently have partnered with many Governments, NGOs, academic institutions, to improve the above mentioned goals.
 
Thera are 17 interrelated goals to achieve a sustainable future by 2030. Citi has a role to play in all of them, with will be focusing on the above 7.
 

Citi to Improve the Technologies after a Huge Blunder!!!

During the last year Citi group has mistakenly sent client’s lenders nearly $1 billion. It was noted that citi was intending to make a small interest payment instead they have paid the full loan amount. After the dispute the lenders refused to pay $500 million back.

‘Screenshot of the error made during the $900 million transfer. The Fund and Front boxes should have clicked too’. It was noted that bank has 6 eyes approval process to make the transaction. Even though it was not followed correctly. If it was operating correctly the funds wouldn’t have mistakenly sent.

“Recipients of cash wired in error are typically required to return it. But in this case, the creditors had reasonable grounds to believe the payment was intentional, Judge Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan wrote in his ruling.”

In October 2022 citi was fined $400 million by the regulators, for inadequate internal controls and compliance, data, and risk management. After this huge mistake and fine citi has announced to invest $54 billion to improve the data, risk, technology process and infrastructure. “Approximately 25% of the investments in those [transformation] programs are related to technology,” said CFO.

A new banking platform that allows Citigroup to consolidate its separate loan processing systems into one holistic service. It is also moving to further develop its risk management capabilities. – CFO Mark Mason. It is also reported that citi is slowly moving towards cloud-based servers to improve the quality of services. 

During the year citi group’s revenue has increased by 6% and reported overall revenue of $18 billion. It was also noted that during Q4 citi has reported a net income of $2.5 billion. 

Reference:

1. Cowley, S. (2021) Citi loses its bid to reclaim cash from a $900 million mistake., The New York Times. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/business/citibank-revlon-loan.html (Accessed: March 13, 2023). 
2. Fourth Quarter and full year 2022 results and key metrics (no date) Global Investment Bank and Financial Services. Available at: https://www.citigroup.com/global/news/press-release/2023/fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022-results-and-key-metrics (Accessed: March 13, 2023). 

Global Innovation challenge by CitiBank may have a huge impact on the society

 

History of CitiBank

During the initial days the name was ‘Citybank’ which was then changed to ‘Citibank’ in 2009. Citi bank had some major breakthrough in the industry after that, mainly in the banking field, this include world’s first ATM. – Citibank, Insights 

Citibank was founded in1812 as the City Bank of New York and has since grown to become a major player in the global banking industry. Over the years, it has been involved in numerous mergers and acqusitions, including the merger with Travelers group in 1998 to form Citigroup Inc.

Citibank, also know as Citigroup Inc, is a multinational Financial services corporation headquarterd in New York City, United States. It is one of the largest banks in the world with a presnesce in over 160 countries, serving around 200 million customers

Citigroup’s contribution towards to irradicate world’s hunger :

In order to come up with a solution to reduce the hunger in the world, Citibank came up with a plan called as “ Global Innovation challenge”. This challenge will help to raise $25 million to support the community organisation around the world. In the first stage 50 Organisation will take part to raise the amount. The main objective of this project is to improve food security and reduce financial burden among the low income earning families.

“The food security crisis is one of the most urgent issues our world is facing today,” said Lisa Henshaw, President, Global Citizen. Forthis proposal, Citi Foundation will prioritise these four areas. They are:

• Access: Support efforts that increase access to affordable and healthy food to low-income communities. 
• Affordability: Improve food affordability through community finance efforts that help reduce the financial burden placed on low-income communities.
• Availability: Address challenges in the food supply chain that lead to positive community benefits, such as the creation of new jobs and businesses.
• Resilience: Increase the number of available resources that enable low-income communities to more effectively prepare for and respond to disruptions in food security during crises.

 

The deadline to complete the challenge is mentioned as March 22, 2023

Reference List

·      Citi Bank Insights (no date) Insights. Available at: https://www.citibank.com/icg/sa/emea/czech/english/insights/history.html#:~:text=Citi%20Globally,of%20the%20world's%20first%20ATM. (Accessed: March 5, 2023). 

·      Citi Foundation Announces Inaugural Global Innovation Challenge to empower nonprofits improving food security around the world (no date) Global Investment Bank and Financial Services. Available at: https://www.citigroup.com/global/news/press-release/2023/citi-foundation-announces-inaugural-global-innovation-challenge-to-empower-nonprofits-improving-food-security-around-the-world (Accessed: March 5, 2023). 

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