Giant Bank Tech Strategies--Frank Sinatra Style

If you could interview the top four CIOs in banking (maybe even the top 93 who are largely proprietary in the design of their strategy), and then took each one to lunch, by the time the third martini was consumed, you'd hear each guy say, "I did it my way." Make no mistake, a bank's IT design is a reflection of the man, just like a building designed by I.M. Pei is clearly recognized as his creation.If it seems I'm always trying to provide evidence supporting my rants and raves, it's not because I was trained as a lawyer. It's because I don't believe everything I read and I don't think you should either. Boy, that felt good! Here's more evidence offered only because I was there and watched it happen.

BancOne had developed a reputation for excellence in IT. I attribute much of it to the guy who was passed over at Citigroup and went to BancOne as CEO. Jamie Dimon had an accurate sense about IT and he formed a working relationship with the CIO. As a result, BancOne signed humongous outsourcing contracts with IBM and AT&T. The press went wild probably because it was the exception to the rule for large banks. The CIO was quoting savings in the billions. Later, Mr. Dimon "sold" BancOne to Chase and took over the reigns at Chase. That, in my opinion, was a blessing that only happens in movies. After the merger, the BancOne CIO left. The Chase CIO stayed. Not surprising. After that, all bets were off. IBM and AT&T were cancelled. Chase did things their way, and quite well.

By the way, can you calculate the Citigroup board's mistake for not appointing Mr. Dimon to run Citigroup? I tried, but I got a headache after computing hundreds of billions of dollars.

In a world where every player offers pretty much the same services, core software started to look like a commodity. NationsBank (now BofA) noticed that and abandoned the idea of maintaining a home-grown deposit system. The CIO contracted with Systematics (now Fidelity National Information Services) for its deposit system. The conversion-planning project commenced with a chartered flight. In the lead first-class seat was a reel of magnetic tape. The rest of the jumbo jet carried hundreds of Little Rock programmers to Charlotte for the customization of the deposit system. And they're still in Charlotte yelling sooooeeee every time the Razorbacks score another touchdown. The CIO liked the vendor's deposits system, but he had to have it his way.

The best bank CIO is only as good as his CEO. I don't know where Walter Wriston, the late Chairman emeritus of Citigroup, is buried but I have a hunch the snow that fell on NYC last week isn't accumulating on his grass. I "met" Walter two times. The first time I was in the employee cafeteria line at the then new Citicorp headquarters building in Manhattan. I was on assignment and my client couldn't break away so he gave me a meal ticket for the cafeteria. I easily spotted the Citibank giant just two guys ahead of me. That would have been a treat if it had ended there. It didn't. Walter turned around and addressed the employee between us. "Why aren't you taking a customer to lunch today instead of eating alone?" There was no answer from the "little guy", as Leona Helmsley would have called him. I couldn't stand his pain so I whispered to him I had a Citibank credit card in my wallet and could easily have served as his customer, just to make Walter happy. The pain lingered without resolve.

The second time I met Walter Wriston was when I called Citibank HQ and asked the operator if someone could verify a statement Walter had made. The Lily Tomlin-type operator from the Bronx said, "Why don't you ask him yourself?" Seconds later I was wired to Walter's voicemail. I left a message. Twenty minutes later Walter called me and apologized for being in a directors' meeting. Walter knew the place, date and occasion when he made the statement. And why not; it had a profound impact on the bank-tech industry and beyond. After he made it, I "blogged" (it wasn't called that then) that every IBM sales rep in financial services made quota that year. Here's the statement from the lips of Walter Wriston, who insisted that I quote it correctly.

"Information about money is almost as important as money itself."

Don't ya love it? I track famous quotes by important people, but this one remains at the top of my list.

Note: Reference to the top 93 banks in the U.S. reflects the 74 percent of the top tier that still believes in proprietary as opposed to "buy-it" tech products.