Citibank marketing financial advice

Phil Levine

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1999 | 11 a.m.

Citibank hopes a new program offering financial advice will help it capitalize on newly minted legislation allowing banks to diversify and expand services.

Dubbed Citipro, the new initiative provides a detailed assessment of customers' future financial needs. Once that process is complete, Citibank can then utilize that information as a marketing tool to promote a wide array of financial products and services.

Citibank is introducing the program today to the Chicago metropolitan area. The program is slated to begin in Nevada on Dec. 15 and will be phased into several other major markets over the next few weeks.

Citibank currently operates five branch offices in Metropolitan Las Vegas, in addition to its 2,300-person call center in the Lakes area.

The bank plans to begin marketing Citipro nationwide in early 2000.

Joseph Plumeri, head of Citibank North America, said he hopes Citipro will change the way the bank interacts with customers by "identifying solutions instead of simply offering products."

Citibank's move to increase its share of non-banking business is not unexpected.

Last month, President Clinton signed new legislation ending decades-old restrictions on banks' ability to diversify products and services.

In the wake of that law, industry experts expect increased activity as banks seek to carve themselves larger shares of the burgeoning financial services sector.

Under the new initiative, Citibank customers can receive a complimentary Citipro either by phone or by visiting one of the bank's financial centers. The customer will be interviewed by a Citibank financial analyst to determine his current financial situation, goals and needs.

Citipro's services include: estimating the amount customers need to save for retirement; calculating a savings and investment program for childrens' college education; offering debt reduction and prioritization advice; and -- perhaps most lucratively for the bank -- recommending an asset allocation solution suitable for the customer's goals and risk tolerance.

A Citibank spokesman said the program was geared to customers of varying means.

"We think customers in Nevada, and all the markets we do business in, will benefit from this program as it's not geared to any particular economic group of people," said Citibank's Mark Rodgers. In the past, several banks have introduced financial advice programs geared only at the upper income level.

Citibank's parent company, Citigroup, is itself an example of cross-pollenation within the financial services sector.

Last year, Citibank and insurance giant Travelers Group merged. The union combines Citibank's banking services with Travelers' insurance, the Salomon Smith Barney brokerage business and Primerica Financial Services.

Plumeri described Citipro as "needs-based selling. It helps consumers manage their finances. Money doesn't come with instructions."

Citipro is similar to a program Plumeri launched while heading Primerica. After that company introduced its program, earnings jumped to $400 million in 1998n from about $180 million the year before.