Research @ Citi Episode 64: Banking on the Future
Feb 5, 2026
Keith Horowitz, Global Head of Banking in Citi's Equity Research, offers sharp takes on banking trends and regulation. He discusses the Silicon Valley Bank pivot and regulatory recalibration. He explores how regional banks compete, the rise of private credit, stablecoins and cross-border payments, and the role of data, AI and shifting loan mixes.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Regional Banks Win By Specializing
- Regional banks can compete by focusing on verticals rather than being everything to everyone.
- Competing effectively relies more on targeted businesses than on scale alone.
Data Quality Trumps AI Hype
- Data quality, not flashy AI budgets, determines how well a bank can deploy AI.
- Banks have been hollowing out legacy cores to clean data and enable practical AI use cases.
Deploy AI Strategically After Cleaning Data
- Use AI for targeted, high-impact use cases rather than chasing broad transformation.
- Clean data infrastructure first, then deploy AI strategically for competitive gains.