Citi’s New Unit to Give Investment Bankers More Data for Pitches

Citigroup Inc. is creating a unit in its investment bank that will equip the firm’s bankers with more data as they pitch clients on new forms of long-term financing and activism defense in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

The unit will be called Strategic Advisory Solutions and led by Muir Paterson, according to an internal memo from Tyler Dickson and Manolo Falco, the lender’s global co-heads of banking, capital markets and advisory. It will be a combination of the financial-strategy group and the shareholder-advisory and data-science unit.

“It’s less about sending a whole bunch of analytics to a client and saying, ‘Make with it what you will,’” Paterson said in an interview. “It’s more about how can we empower our bankers with better data and analytics.”

As the coronavirus pandemic reached the U.S., Citigroup saw an initial wave of clients seeking to draw on revolving credit facilities. Now, customers have entered a second phase where they’re seeking new forms of long-term financing or hoping to make lasting changes to their capital structure. And they want data to back up decisions, Dickson said in an interview.

“The more you can substantiate a decision with data and analytics and science, rather than judgment alone, the more it improves your confidence,” he said.

The new unit also is intended to help Citigroup become one of the three biggest investment banks globally, up from No. 4. Paterson will work with Ajay Khorana, who will continue to lead the financial-strategy group and oversee the bank’s corporate finance advisory efforts.

“The single biggest question we’ve been getting since the crisis started from corporations is, ‘Do I have adequate liquidity on the balance sheet if certain pandemic scenarios play out?’” Khorana said. “Our hope is we provide these insights better and faster.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jenny Surane in New York at jsurane4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net

Daniel Taub, Dan Reichl

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