Citi looks to slash technology costs

Banking behemoth Citigroup is looking at ways to cut down on technology costs and save over $1 billion this year by integrating hundreds of systems, says a media report.

"Citigroup is ramping up efforts to slash its huge technology costs, with the bank's management believing it can save significantly more than $1 billion in 2009 by integrating hundreds of systems that have been separate for years," the Financial Times has reported.

Quoting people close to the situation, the daily said that Citi's internal projections targeted savings that were a multiple of the $1 billion the bank had originally identified for technology in 2009.

"The move underlines a shift in strategy being championed by Vikram Pandit, chief executive, to rebuild a company that has suffered billions of dollars in losses and has been repeatedly bailed out by the US government," the report said.

Citi had originally estimated it could save $3 billion over three years by rationalising its operations and technology functions, "which employ 140,000 people, including 25,000 software developers -- more than many information technology companies," the report noted.

Attributing to people close to Citi, the daily said increased savings in IT would not have a major impact on its target of reducing overall expenses to $50-52 billion by the end of 2009 from $71 billion last year.