Agility is a lot more than how our developers approach an issue. Are we going be able to think and execute swiftly? A lot of people talk about being agile. The Quarterly: What are the top-of-mind risks for you as you continue Citi’s transition to a digital bank?ĭon Callahan is Head of Operations and Technology at Citigroup.ĭon Callahan: I think the biggest risk for the industry is whether it will be able to move fast enough. In an interview with McKinsey’s James Kaplan and Asheet Mehta, Callahan describes what it takes to mobilize digital change at one of the world’s leading financial institutions.

He points to Citi’s digital lab for start-up innovations, powerful new apps for customer smartphones, and, internally, a push to expand capabilities across cloud computing and big data and analytics that enable automation and machine learning. All this change requires a focus on agility, Callahan says, which in turn demands a cultural rewiring.Īt the helm of Citi’s digital transformation, Callahan is helping drive new thinking across the bank. This is apparent as Callahan surveys the 21 st-century banking terrain: digital competitors are massing on every front-from fintech start-ups to new divisions of global institutions-while the speed of every banking process and customer interaction accelerates daily. The bank’s Head of Operations and Technology, Don Callahan, believes that today, in the digital age, Wriston would surely drop the qualifier to his famous observation, noting: “Information simply is as important as money.” Citi’s legendary chairman Walter Wriston noted years ago that information about money has become almost as important as money itself.

Global Consumer Bank at Citi