If you can't beat them, join them. Or maybe invest in them.
That's the ethos at Citigroup Inc., which has created a group to invest in financial technology companies to get the first look at innovations that could reshape debt markets.
The Wall Street giant joins a growing number of established lenders, from Banco Santander SA to BNP Paribas SA, pouring money into technology upstarts that could change the way markets operate.
Citigroup's new fintech division is led by Matt Zhang and sits within an existing group that combines credit markets, municipal securities and securitized-markets operations, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. A spokeswoman for the bank confirmed the contents of the memo.
The venture will focus on technologies related to trading infrastructure, data analysis, artificial intelligence and machine learning among others, according to the memo to staff from Joe Geraci and Mickey Bhatia, co-heads of the bank's global spread products group, and the division's chairman Ward Marsh.
