Quick Stats on Citi

Founder	Sanford Well, Samuel Osgood
Year Founded	1998
Origin	New York
No. of Employees	210,000
Company Type	Public
Market Cap	$ 133.02 Billion (2021)
Annual Revenue	$ 74.3 Billion (2020)
Net Income/ Profit	$ 11 Billion (2020)

 

                            (Source: Financial Times)

Products & Services of Citi

Consumer Banking

• Credit Card 
• Retail Banking

Institutional Banking

• Capital Markets and Advisory
• Commercial Banking
• Securities Services 
• Treasury and Trade Solution
• Wealth Management

Competitors of Citi

• JP Morgan & Chase
• Morgan Stanley
• Goldman Sachs
• Bank of America
• NatWest Group
• Wells Fargo
• HSBC

SWOT Analysis of Citi

Talking about Citi’s business, let’s understand how this corporation can cater to different individuals using SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis of Citi helps us to understand companies through the lens of internal and external factors. Strength and weakness are based on internal factors whereas opportunities and threats rely on external factors of the bank.

Below is a step-by-step detailed guide to help you with the SWOT analysis of Citi.

Strengths of Citi

Strengths refer to those factors which help a company to have a slight edge over its competitors.

• Brand Reputation: Citi has been in the business of banking for a large number of years. Also, with the variety of products and services it provides, it is established as a leader in the industry. This helps the corporation to gain a reputation and get recognized easily.

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• Automation: The company has a well-established IT system that helps ensure efficiency in its internal and external operations. Also, with the advancements in technology, it has automated various stages of production, leading to reducing its cost. This helps maintain the quality of products and services.
• Product Portfolio: Citi’s portfolio includes a large range of product offerings in different categories, keeping in mind its customer base and target markets.
• Social Media Presence: With changing dynamics of business, Citi has been able to create a strong presence on social media having more than millions of followers on social platforms. Want to know how social media works as a strength for Citi? Then you must check out the benefits of social media marketing to get the answer to your query. 
• Skilled Labour Force: Citi continues to hire employees with higher qualifications all over the globe. This helps the company to be ahead of the competition. Also, it has invested in the training and development of its employees.
• The leading Issuer of Credit Cards Globally: One of the biggest roleplay that allowed Citi to establish itself as a leader is due to its facility of issuing credit cards.

Weaknesses of Citi

Weaknesses are the pain points that can affect the company, in the following ways.

• Lower Employee Retention Rates: Citi has been facing higher employee turnover, which means many employees leave. The downfall of this is, that the company has to invest large sums of money into the training and development of its employees
• Fluctuating Market Share: Citi’s product portfolio has some products which have a higher market share, while many have lower market shares. This creates a disparity in the portfolio, which makes it vulnerable to threats from competitors, new entrants, etc
• Centralized Decision Making: Every decision taken in the corporation has to be centrally approved by the officials which lead to lesser efficiency in its operations and delays in work schedules.
• Cash Flow Problems: Cash is necessary for running day-to-day operations and emergencies. But, the problem occurs when there is a lack of financial planning involving cash flows. This can lead to unplanned borrowing and increasing costs.
• Lower Current Ratio: There occurs a problem in the current ratio where there are more liabilities than the available assets. This leads to a mismatch in the financials of the company.

Opportunities for Citi

In the market, there also exist many opportunities through which a company can grow. Some of them are listed as.

• Increasing Income: Increasing disposable income with the consumers leads to an increase in consumer spending. This can create demand for Citi’s products and services.
• Demographics: The population is always growing and it always shows a positive rate in the coming future. It helps the companies to create new target markets for their products and services.
• Lower Interest Rates: Interest rates are getting lowered compared to previous years which allows considering expansion that involves finances with loans at a cheaper rate.
• Increased Globalisation: Increasing globalization gives the option of entering new markets. It also reduces trade barriers and aids in increasing operations.
• Technological Advancement: Technology has boosted the economy in many ways. It helps in automating the processes to reduce cost. It brings numerous benefits to many departments. One major benefit of technology is better data collection and market research.

Threats to Citi

Threats are the factors that usually no one has complete control over. Here we can only try to minimize them, including

• New Entrants: There will always be newbies entering the market. Some may also come up with great solutions to existing problems, which lead to loss of the market share of existing companies.
• Fluctuating Exchange Rates: When the business is operating in many nations, there is always a threat of fluctuating exchange rates. It impacts Citi, as it has sales internationally, while the suppliers are always local.
• Increased Marketing Efforts: Due to the rise of digital marketing, there is an increasing number of promotional messages which are being sent by competitors. It clutters up the space, which leads to losing out on customers. You must also be well versed with a variety of digital marketing skills to get ahead of the competition.
• Political Instability: There are always changing regulations in different nations. It exposes changes in trade regulations and requires compliance by the companies.

This ends our absolute SWOT analysis of Citi. Let us conclude our learning below.