Citi is creating a new unit called Citi Commerce Media that will let brands advertise to its 70M+ customers based on their spending histories, according to Business Insider. The ads will target users inside Citi’s mobile app and on its website, as well as on outside platforms like Facebook.
Citi says it can link its ads to measurable business impacts based on intel from 6.5B annual transactions across more than 700 spending categories.
Abhinav Anand, head of value cards, lending, and commerce at Citi, told Business Insider:
“We are focusing primarily based on your spending pattern, and that’s what the advertisers care the most about.”
Citi already ran a pilot with health and beauty brands that it says produced an average 15% lift in spending compared to people who weren’t shown ads. But at what cost?! The Business Insider article didn’t mention anything about ROAS, just revenue increase, which can be a bit deceiving.
Citi is not the first, nor will it be the last, bank or fintech to launch an ad network. Klarna has sold ads to merchants since 2020. JPMorgan Chase and PayPal both launched ads businesses in 2024, and Mastercard and American Express followed in 2025. Outside of financial institutions, tech companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Expedia have launched ad businesses in recent years, to name a few. Of course, there’s also OpenAI, the $1 trillion elephant in the room that launched an ads business earlier this year.
The space is getting crowded, but that’s a good thing.
I’m pro having more ad networks. There’s been a stronghold on the digital advertising market for more than two decades, dominated by a select few tech companies. Launching new advertising networks that leverage consumer transaction data can bring much needed competition to the space, offer affordable alternatives to legacy advertising networks, and ultimately bring down the cost of digital ads for brands.
