Citi's 7-year core banking programme

Citibank has standardised its core banking systems worldwide on the Flexcube product from i-flex. The implementation of the product at Citi's markets and banking divisions in 67 countries is the culmination of seven years of work. 

Steve Randich, chief information officer, Citi markets & banking, hailed the implementation as "an unparalleled achievement in scope and impact", which has enabled the bank to realise great operational and cost benefits while preserving its investment in several hundred highly specific point solutions.

Overall, there are more than 2500 products serviced and Flexcube processes more than seven million transactions per day. To get there, i-flex had to build more than 1500 product-specific interfaces to interact with hundreds of Citi front-office systems worldwide.

Analysts at Celent Communications believe Citibank will, ultimately, be able to save close to $110 million annually through reduced maintenance costs as well as more rapid development times as a result of the transformation.

The sheer magnitude and scale of the programme illustrates the enormous effort required by global Tier 1 banks in transforming their legacy operations, and Citi's achievement in reaching this milestone deserves our unreserved admiration.

But I wonder, when the project was initially scoped out, did Citi have a seven-year timeframe in mind? And would any other bank enter into a similar project in the full knowledge of the true investment costs - capital, labour and blood, sweat and tears - required to meet its goals.