85%
approx. faster data onboarding
99.95%
uptime and elastic scale
Real-time
customer recognition
Citizens employs Informatica AI-powered Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) platform to build a single customer view, enabling real-time personalization across touchpoints. The architecture built on AWS and IDMC reduces data onboarding by approximately 85% and democratizes access to trusted data.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
When I joined Citizens, my main focus was to think about how we can essentially drive a very different, engaging data experience, whether it's for our business partners or our engineers. And last but not least, our customers. As part of my role, me and my team, we have built a wide range of data frameworks that have helped modernize our cloud journey. Our technology ecosystem primarily relies on AWS infrastructure. We use a lot of serverless capabilities to auto-scale and to run distributed data processing workloads at will. Connectivity with Informatica is primarily driven through a really sound approach of abstraction. We focus on building data domain-based APIs, microservice layers which we own, and then we publish for the enterprise. And then underneath the covers, we then basically have those APIs talk to the products. In this case, with Informatica, it would be Reference 360 and Customer 360.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We have the full power and control of our end user experience, whether it's an application or a user talking to our APIs. The focus is to build an operational MDM that sits very closely as a first class citizen with the origination systems and powers a customer experience, which means that we require higher availability, scalability and resilience. We want to be MDM as a capability. We want to make that as one of the first API calls that we make when a customer comes through any of our origination channels. That way, we know you are either an existing or net new customer, and then we tailor your experience with that. That's very significant. So, it's a big leap from where we were to kind of where we are. We were able to bring data to life from batch, from legacy, many weeks to literally now you can make changes and it's reflected near real time for all of our downstream consumers.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
One of the things that really excites us as a company is going through the journey of building a customer master using Informatica as our SaaS product; so the underlying infrastructure and the complexity involved in managing the servers, managing the infrastructure, managing the patching, upgrade, all of that stuff. And it gives us a lot of time for my engineers, for our business partners to focus on stewarding, making sure the data is more accurate and also use the data to power AI use cases (generative AI use cases). I think that's the real power and the benefit in moving to Informatica.
“Operational MDM requires higher availability, scalability and resilience – and Informatica supports all of that. We spend less time on underlying complexities and more time ensuring data accuracy and powering AI use cases.”
Investing in future-proof data management
With roots dating back to 1828, the Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank is no stranger to transformation. Navigating countless ownership changes and business expansions, the company has grown into a regional juggernaut with over 1,000 branches across 14 U.S. states, now managing over $220 billion in assets. Its latest innovations include everything from virtual assistants at ATM drive-up stations to mobile-first college funding programs.
Keeping pace with continued innovation requires an evolving IT infrastructure. "When I joined Citizens, my main focus was to think about how to drive a unique and engaging data experience, whether that’s for our engineers, business partners or our customers,” says Anand Vijai M R, Unit CIO - Risk, Finance and Compliance and Head of Enterprise Data Platforms Engineering.
A key change involved moving from batch to real-time data processing to support better insights and value for each of these stakeholders. Thriving in the high-stakes, highly regulated world of banking requires trustworthy data to be in the company's DNA. "If your entire business model is primarily driven off of managing financial services data, you might as well make it so good that you're able to use it for performing your accounting functions, meeting regulations, powering your analytics and enhancing the customer experience," explains Vijai.
As Citizens looked to accelerate its cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, Vijai saw an opportunity to reimagine the bank's data management framework for the digital era.
“We've already brought data to life through Reference 360. From batch and legacy systems that took days or weeks, now we can make changes and it’s reflected in near real time for all our downstream consumers. That’s a big leap forward for our business."
Turning MDM into an operational asset
Citizens’ master data management (MDM) journey started a decade ago. Like many MDM programs, its initial focus was on supporting the bank’s analytics and back-office functions. Domains were hosted across on-premises data centers and multiple MDM solutions.
But this legacy approach had limitations. There was no single source of truth due to decentralized reference data and hierarchy management; this led to inconsistent mastering of data versions across the organization. Data latency from batch processing could take between four to 15 hours, which sufficed for overnight reporting or compliance needs but couldn’t support real-time customer interactions. Manual onboarding setups and limited pre-fill of existing customer information also resulted in inconsistent data quality and service experience.
As with many other financial services companies, consistent, connected and complete customer data leads to better customer experiences.
To accomplish this, Vijai and his team wanted to transform MDM into an operational asset: a "Tier 1" cloud-native application that is always available and closely integrated with origination systems and customer channels. "We want MDM to be one of the first API calls when a customer comes through any of our channels,” he explains. “That way, whether you’re walking into the branch, calling a customer care professional or talking to us through a mobile app, we know if you are an existing or new customer and we can tailor your experience.”
This vision aligned with Citizens' broader push to exit data centers and move all applications to the cloud. To modernize and rationalize its MDM footprint, the bank chose to partner with Informatica and the Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), focusing on two key areas: reference data management and mastering customers and relationships.
Balancing speed and data governance
Citizens chose Informatica MDM, as part of the IDMC platform, for its market leadership, enterprise scalability and cloud-native architecture – and its close alignment with the bank's cloud infrastructure provider, AWS. Most of the data Citizens produces and originates gets persisted in AWS data lakes and the team uses serverless capabilities to auto-scale and run distributed processing workloads.
Informatica Cloud MDM SaaS solution provides 99.95% uptime and elastic scale, freeing up bank resources to drive innovation instead of managing infrastructure. “Operational MDM requires higher availability, scalability and resilience – and Informatica supports all of that," notes Vijai. "Since it's a SaaS product, we spend less time on underlying complexities and more time ensuring data accuracy and powering AI use cases."
Citizens took a measured approach to maximize delivery speed while minimizing risk. The team abstracted Informatica MDM capabilities into an enterprise API layer, which allows internal teams and systems to maintain a consistent end-user interface even as underlying solutions are upgraded or replaced.
These data domain-based APIs also support greater flexibility in structuring workload latencies. Using the same data pipeline, customer and reference data are delivered in milliseconds to mission-critical applications and operational processes, whereas less time-sensitive use cases (such as analytics) consume the data from a cache or data lake within minutes.
Reaping the rewards of cloud MDM success
Citizens is already seeing the benefits of its modern, cloud-native MDM. Informatica Reference 360 enables the bank to provision new reference datasets in days versus weeks, achieving up to 85 percent faster data onboarding and greater speed and efficiency for the business. "All of our reference datasets are now available as microservices for the enterprise. It's a big leap from many weeks to near real-time for all our downstream consumers," says Vijai.
Next up is Customer 360, which will enable real-time recognition at key touchpoints like web, mobile, branch office and contact center. A “universal” customer ID, powered by bi-directional syncs between MDM and systems of record and operations, will ensure the latest information and preferences are always available to any user across the bank. This transition from batch to real-time unlocks powerful use cases around personalization and upsell/cross-sell opportunities.
"In the past, if a customer updated their phone number or email, it could take up to three days to reflect across systems," Vijai recalls. "With Informatica Cloud MDM SaaS, we can make profile updates instantly. Not only is our mobile experience more seamless, but our content center call volumes decreased, creating a cost optimization opportunity.”
Business users now enjoy an improved experience, with streamlined data stewarding through the cloud-native MDM and enterprise API. Informatica CLAIRE® as an AI copilot helps Citizens open its metadata store to the business, democratizing data access. Authenticated users can now more easily find relevant data and evaluate different sources using automated context and multi-dimensional quality scores. “Previously, data access was more of a siloed offering and many people didn’t know where to find these assets,” says Vijai. “With Informatica, our entire metadata store is now open for everybody and they can know what data to trust.”
The next frontier of personalized financial services
While the cloud MDM journey continues, Citizens is confident about the path ahead with Informatica. "We've already brought data to life through Reference 360,” says Vijai. “From batch and legacy systems that took days or weeks, now we can make changes and it’s reflected in near real time for all our downstream consumers. That’s a big leap forward for our business.”
This trusted, real-time data foundation powered by IDMC will enable Citizens Bank to tap into AI and machine learning – and define the future of customer-centric banking. With exceptional data experiences enhancing every interaction, the bank strives to maximize value for customers, business partners and internal engineers. Real-time reference data, a single customer view and millisecond data synchronization are already enabling more personalized omnichannel interactions. And the nearly 200-year-old bank is just getting started.
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