Citi Announces the Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge
Citi today announced the Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge (T4I), a landmark effort to encourage technology innovators from
around the world to create cutting-edge solutions to promote integrity, accountability and transparency in the public sector and
beyond.
The initiative, led by Citi in collaboration with public and private sector allies, will provide public sector entities with
access to tech innovators and their ideas on how to increase transparency and efficiency. T4I will also provide the support and
infrastructure that tech innovators need to tailor new technology solutions for this market.
T4I is structured as a global open innovation competition, where companies of any type or size can submit technology solutions.
The challenge will seek to source innovation in a number of areas, including government transactions and procurement; culture,
ethics and citizen engagement; cutting red tape; and information security and identity.
Selected participants will enroll in a virtual accelerator program, which will provide mentoring, curriculum and infrastructure
support to help them enhance their submissions. Finalists will showcase their solutions at one of six Demo Days in cities around
the world, including Buenos Aires, Dublin, Hyderabad, Mexico City and Singapore in May and June. Due to the open nature of the
competition, award recipients from the Demo Days will have the opportunity to work with any business, organization or government
interested in exploring innovative integrity tools.
In addition, Citi today released the results of a two-month crowdsourcing survey of more than 150 individuals, spanning public,
private and non-governmental organizations around the world, to identify Integrity Pain Points on which developers should focus
their efforts. The top issues raised in the survey included beneficiary eligibility; tax administration, including collection and
taxpayer identity; transparency in the procurement process; allocation of public funds; and tools to increase transparency and
fight corruption.
Citi’s T4I allies include countries and other public and private sector entities looking to bring outside innovation
inside their organizations. T4I strategic allies include Clifford Chance, Facebook, IBM, Let’s Talk Payments, Mastercard, Microsoft
and PwC.
“We are proud to launch the Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge,” said Julie Monaco, Global Head of the Public Sector Group in
Citi’s Corporate and Investment Banking division. “By supporting open innovation and providing innovators with the tools they need
to develop ideas, we hope to help solve some of the biggest challenges that the public sector faces.”
With today’s announcement, Citi officially opened the application process for companies to submit ideas. T4I will accept applications until March 6, 2017. The
accelerator program will run from March to April, when finalists will be selected to participate in Demo Days.
“IBM is excited to work with Citi, its allies and innovators around the world to leverage our technology and expertise,” said
Mary Tafuri, Director, IBM Developer Technology & Advocacy, noting that IBM has long helped public sector clients transform and
address their biggest challenges. “We look forward to helping the public sector use cognitive, cloud and Blockchain technologies to
drive innovation and increase efficiencies and transparency that will benefit citizens everywhere.”
“The LTP team looks forward to raising awareness about T4I among our global FinTech audience, especially with MEDICI, the
industry's knowledge network, which will help all startup applicants put their best foot forward as they compete in this complex
ecosystem,” said Aditya Khurjekar, CEO and founder, Let's Talk Payments.
“We work with governments around the world to encourage the adoption of digital payments to help them increase accountability,
drive efficiency and encourage inclusive growth,” said Matthew Driver, Executive Vice President, Global Lead for Citi at
Mastercard. “With the Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge, we can extend our technology and expertise to help companies that want to
create innovative payment and related ecosystem solutions that improve public sector transparency and service delivery.”
“By harnessing new technologies through open innovation and applying them to integrity issues, we will facilitate solutions that
will increase transparency and support the fight against corruption,” said Jay Collins, Vice Chairman of Corporate and Investment
Banking at Citi. “We hope that this challenge will not only change the integrity paradigm, but demonstrate the power of scaled
global public-private partnerships.”
For more details on the Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge, please refer to the T4I website: www.techforintegritychallenge.com.
Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and
jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and
services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and
wealth management.
Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi
Citi
Robert Julavits, 212-816-8020
robert.w.julavits@citi.com
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