Lippert was previously vice chairman and group head of global technology and operations at RBC, where he was central to expansion into the U.S., a process that included integrating a number is disparate and cross-border back office processing systems for different lines of business, work similar to what needs to be done to integrate Citi's global holdings, which have been siloed along consumer banking, wealth management, cards and institutional business lines—with each group running its own IT shop. "While there may have been some integration at Citi, there's still a lot of work to do," says Guillermo Kopp, an analyst for TowerGroup, who says the success of the initiatives Lippert was hired to spearhead are not only vital for Citi to remain competitive with rivals like JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, but the key to the bank's very survival. "From a business standpoint, the goal may be to diversify, but in the tech shop it's about controlling resources with the right architecture.