Katie Dilaj is the Managing Director, UK & Europe Product Head of Platform & Data Services, overseeing digital products for Citi’s Services business. Since joining Citi in 2021, she has served as the Global Head of Product Marketing for Treasury and Trade Solutions and as the EMEA Head of Market Management. Prior to Citi, Katie held various roles at Deutsche Bank, including Global Product Management in Client Connectivity Products and roles in Relationship Management and Programme Management in London and New York.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CIO Magazine, Katie shared insights into how her professional journey began in the middle office and investment banking, shaped by regulations like Dodd-Frank and EMIR and client pain points in onboarding and KYC that made data quality and seamless design her north star. On trends and AI, she sees the next five years shifting platforms and data from bank-owned portals to client environments — like messaging apps that banks will connect to— delivering real-time, context-aware experiences, while data quality becomes the foundation as AI accelerates anomaly detection and decision-making. Her advice to aspiring professionals is to be curious, stay open to learning, and embrace that learning now flows both ways across generations. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Katie. Looking back to your early days in the middle office and investment banking, what was the moment you realised technology and data would be your long-term focus?
I’ve always been driven by sitting at the intersection between building products and managing client relationships. I’m fortunate enough that my early experiences have set me up to have a successful role leading complex digital organisations. In my early career, I spent a lot of time managing new regulations both in the US and UK, impacting global markets, for example, Dodd-Frank & EMIR trade reporting. I then moved onto a relationship management role covering Non-Bank Financial Institutions, which enabled me to see firsthand the experiences that clients loved or frustrated them, particularly when it came to onboarding or managing KYC or Tax information. This enabled me to be much more client-centric when designing future solutions for clients within product roles that I would go on to. The common thread across all of these roles was the importance of getting the data right and designing experiences that are seamless. As my career advanced, it became clear to me that roles across tech, data, and client service were exciting focus areas for me.
As UK & Europe Head of Platforms & Data, Services, what part of your mandate lights you up most each day?
I love co-creating experiences with our clients that will truly delight them. When I first moved into transaction banking at Deutsche Bank, I led a global initiative to begin co-creating cash management solutions with clients. This need to create products that are relevant for clients and bring them in early into the design phase has never left me; it’s part of my DNA. At Citi, I have been able to take it one step further with the team, where we run design thinking and innovation / co-creation workshops with clients on a number of topics, but most recently around Artificial Intelligence. While we know our clients well, we want their voice to help inform our roadmap to continue developing our products and help ensure we know where to focus our efforts.
Financial services are changing faster than ever. Five years from now, what do you believe will be the single biggest shift in how platforms and data create value for clients?
I think we will see a greater shift in moving experiences to where clients want to be, when they want to be there, allowing them to do exactly what they need to do at that exact moment. Traditionally, these experiences have sat in proprietary platforms of Banks, shifting into multi-banking platforms and APIs over time for certain use cases (for example, in open banking), but in the future these experiences can potentially sit within the client’s own environment. For example, making a payment or checking your balances for liquidity, this could potentially be done within the clients’ messaging platform as another channel for Banks to connect with our clients.
Data is often called the “new oil”, but many firms still struggle with quality. What needs to change for data to truly become a strategic asset by 2030?
The industry has talked about the importance of data for a long time, but at Citi, we have spent the last few years significantly investing in our people and platforms in this space to elevate the quality and completeness of data, which is the foundation to being able to truly offer leading banking solutions. The rise of Artificial Intelligence is truly expediting the pace at which banks and our clients are cleaning up data so we can maximize the potential of utilizing AI for accurate and timely decision-making. It is no easy task, but there are initiatives such as the shift to structured address data for ISO 20022 coming in November, which are also forcing the industry to standardize and harmonize data. I also expect Artificial Intelligence to help the industry with understanding data anomalies and making recommendations on how to streamline.
Books and ideas shape how we lead. Which book, podcast, or thinker has influenced your mindset the most over the last few years?
My go-to daily podcast is Bloomberg Daybreak; it’s really helpful to get digestible news on the commute in, or even out for a run. I read a lot of articles, so in terms of books, I must confess that I spend my downtime reading fiction as a way to switch off and disconnect my brain before sleep; I recently read The Housemaid, which was excellent and exactly the type of dramatic story that I love to lose myself in!
Beyond the boardroom, everyone needs ways to reset. What’s your go-to activity in London that helps you switch off and recharge?
I am a huge foodie, so trying new restaurants (especially if there is a tasting menu or small plates so I get to try lots of different things) is always top of my to-do list. I also love to cook at home and try to make various dishes from scratch. I also have a little five-year-old, who keeps my husband and me active on the weekends, so we are often playing tennis, or football, or just generally trying to keep up with his endless energy!
If you had to predict one “future-ready” capability every financial institution will need by 2030, what would it be?
I think all banks are exploring the potential of Agents in the context of Artificial Intelligence. I think the “what” in this space will be somewhat homogeneous, as most banks will utilize the large technology providers; however, the “how” these are implemented is going to be game-changing. At Citi, having the scale to deploy these consistent experiences across the 90+ markets that we operate in will truly help to enhance the experiences we offer for our clients across the spectrum of transaction banking interactions, from onboarding to day-to-day servicing to sales processes.
What is your biggest goal? Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
Good question…! In five years, I hope to be helping shape the next generation of transaction banking, and I’m excited about what technology is still to come that we currently don’t know about! As digitalisation, real-time experiences and data-driven services continue to transform the industry, I’d like to be known for leading that change and providing thought leadership to our clients to support them through the transformative journey. I’d like to look back with pride on how I have led a talented team that has helped clients navigate a period of significant change within transaction banking and how we have built products that not only truly solve clients’ current needs but also anticipate future needs.
Aspiring professionals often ask how to break into platforms and data. What’s the first concrete step you’d tell them to take this year?
Be curious! And extremely open to learning. The pace at which technology is changing can be daunting, but just start to learn somewhere that interests you and expand from there. I think it’s also fine not to know everything. I enjoy learning from my team, who can be more technically savvy than I am, and I think that’s the beauty of the generational change in the workplace that we are seeing. Gone are the days when being junior meant that the learning was typically one-way; now, the digitally native generations are able to bring new and exciting knowledge into the industry.