FINANCIAL SERVICES
When it comes to international financial services in Ireland, Citi is another major success story. We spoke to Citi’s Irish CEO Aidan Brady (BComm 75) about how the Irish operation has moved itself up the value chain within the group
global O
The opportunity
UR resilient and expanding international financial services sector continues to evade the turmoil in Irish retail banking. Aidan Brady is the Irish CEO of global banking giant Citi, which in December announced it would be creating a further 250 jobs in Dublin andWaterford over the next 18 months,
bringing its staff numbers in Ireland to close to 2,500, making it one of the largest Irish-based international financial services companies. The opening in 2009 of a new Research, Development,
Innovation and Learning (RDIL) Centre in Dublin brought its investment in R&Din Ireland toUS$100m, and was just the lat- est in a history of innovations that have allowed Citi’s Irish oper- ation to create new niches and move itself up the value chain within the global group. The RDIL Centre was established to cre- ate the next wave of financial products and systems for the finan- cial services industry, explains Brady. The US-headquartered bank has had a presence in Ireland
since 1965, when it was set up to provide financial services to the growing numbers of its US multinational customers invest- ing here. As well as being one of the first foreign-owned banks in Ireland, it was the first to move into the IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) in 1992, shortly after Brady’s
32 UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
appointment as chief executive. Brady attributes its significant growth to a very proactive cul-
ture within the Irish operation. The focus, he says, has always been on trying to do more within the group, coming up with new ideas and projects, and looking to see how it could be a player on the worldwide stage within Citi. “When we were still in the Stephen’s Green offices, we were already asking ourselves what we could do for Citi worldwide,” he says. “We knew it was time to look beyond just the Irish business, and we began to pitch for new projects. It was this process of thinking big that led to our major break in the Nineties. Because we were out there pushing ourselves, doing the beauty parade with other countries, we won this massive deal. Through a com- petitive process, we won the project to put in a back office for our corporate banking inWestern Europe in Dublin.” It was then that, in a very short space of time, Citi grew to be a
large employer here, taking on about 1,500 new staff in the Nineties, continues Brady. “The project was centred on what is now called the Global Transaction Services business for Citi - the transaction banking which is the nuts and bolts of what Citi does around the world.” However, Brady and his team knewthat this key project waswon not on a talent-basis alone, but also because of the relatively low
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