Citigroup : Celebrating 100 Years in Canada

By John Hastings, Citi Country Officer for CanadaJune 12, 2019 03:45 PM

In 2019, Citi is celebrating 100 years in Canada, a remarkable milestone by any measure. In 1919 the National City Bank asked Norman C. Mather, a Canadian bond trader who had just returned from the Great War, to open an office servicing the needs of Canadian investors in Montreal and Toronto. Mather sought to fill the ranks of his new subsidiary with colleagues who, like him, had recently returned from active duty overseas.

Even in those early days, Citi touted the strength of its international network, which remains one of our distinguishing attributes today. The increasingly global company's reach into 55 cities around the world and the quality of our service were our hallmarks. It would appear that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Citi Canada today serves both institutional and consumer clients, offering financial services to many of the country's top-tier corporations and public sector organizations. We provide wealth management through Citi Private Bank and consumer cards through Citi Cards Canada. Citi now operates in 160 countries and jurisdictions, with offices in nearly 100 - a network unmatched in our industry. Citi is one of Canada's longest-serving foreign banks, and the most internationally-connected to help clients achieve their global ambitions.

Toronto is home to our Canadian headquarters, many of our clients, and most of our staff. As the second-largest financial services centre in North America after New York, the depth of local technology talent in this market has led to the creation of our Toronto Citi Service Centre (CSC) in suburban Toronto. At the CSC, more than 1,000 technologists deepen Citi's technological capabilities by designing and managing applications and projects that benefit clients and trading floors around the world.

Toronto's tech talent pool is so deep that in 2018, the Greater Toronto Area hired more technology employees than the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C., combined. That fact alone certainly speaks not only to the depth of technology talent in Canada, but to our rich and appealing quality of life.

Part of Citi's commitment to enabling progress extends to ensuring we make a positive impact in the community. This impact stretches across Canada, helping to improve the lives of the country's most vulnerable and in-need populations through our Citi Foundation grants, corporate and employee donations, and the generous volunteer efforts of our talented staff.

As part of our 100^th anniversary celebrations, we were proud to welcome Citi CEO Mike Corbat to kick off Citi's 14^th annual Global Community Day celebrations with colleagues who planted wildflowers and shrubs in Tommy Thompson Park, an important conservation area in Toronto. This year, 1,000 of Citi's Canadian staff participated in 18 volunteer projects across the country, with nearly 110,000 of our colleagues giving back in some 400 cities around the world.

In our centennial year, all of us at Citi Canada are proud to reflect on our long legacy of enabling growth and progress and of being the best for our clients. We are equally proud of our contributions to the communities where we live and work. Our first century combined exemplary client service with citizenship, a legacy that we are confident will continue for many decades to come.

*Tagged as: Canada

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