Citigroup, through its philanthropic arm the Citi Foundation, will provide up to $25 million to leading business schools to conduct research on issues affecting the financial services landscape, Citigroup announced last week.
As the first phase in its five-year Financial Insights Program, Citigroup this year will award individual grants to Columbia University, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford and Yale. Each school will have a distinct area of focus for its respective research.
At Columbia, the Citi Foundation grant will fund faculty and graduate fellows from the schools of business, law, and other divisions as they examine the interplay of global and local product innovation, risk management and regulation in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Specific emphasis will be placed on China and India.
Harvard Business School (HBS)’s faculty will use the grant money to study U.S. competitiveness, from the need to continually drive innovation to maintaining a robust and vibrant capital market. The HBS initiative will also examine how investments in infrastructure and human capital and the quality of regulations and political institutions can help improve U.S. competitiveness.
At MIT’s Sloan School of Management, the Financial Insights Program grant money will help researchers examine the impact of technology on the future of retail banking and applications of data-mining techniques and interactive databases to detect trends and shifts in consumer preferences and behavior.
Innovation and the impact of social media on financial services will be the focus of research conducted at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) as part of the Citi Foundation program. Specifically, Stanford GSB’s research will examine financial services innovation as it relates to consumer decision making around major life events such as purchasing a home, preparing for retirement and planning for the care of elderly parents. Additional research may look at the future role of social media in driving client interactions, brand positioning and employee engagement.
Finally, Yale School of Management faculty will pursue two research avenues related to the dynamics of consumer and financial behaviors in China and India. The first area of research will measure the market expansion effects of mobile banking. The second study will examine how financial markets impact society, both in terms of people’s economic well-being and their cultural values and social structures.
“I believe banks should play a leadership role in advancing the conversation on the future of finance,” said Citi CEO Vikram Pandit in a statement announcing the launch of the Financial Insights Program. “As the economy emerges from the downturn, now is the time to engage the brightest minds at top academic institutions in a research initiative that explores the emerging trends, innovations and technologies rapidly transforming the global economic landscape,” he continued.
In addition to funding research at these five schools as part of this new project, Citi is also contributing to research on responsible finance at HBS, is a partner in the Future of Finance Initiative at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business; and sponsors campus-based, leadership development programs at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, New York University, Columbia University and Cornell.
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