Giving back and building a better future through FinTech

With Canvas, users take the wheel in building the future of banking

Enter Canvas Designed by Citi℠. Already tapped into the promise and power of the FinTech revolution, Citi has dedicated itself to helping its users shape the future of finance and banking—by giving their time through direct participation in Canvas.

Launched in 2017, Canvas is a testing community that gives customers the opportunity to co-create products that fit their lifestyle and redefine how to approach all things finance. In short, Canvas creates a community that will ultimately help guide Citi—and its customers—toward better banking solutions for their unique lifestyles.

Canvas’s community-oriented focus shows how Citi knows technology itself won’t guide us toward a better future—people will, when we humanize technology by using our lived experiences to inform what tech can do for us. By placing the power to shape banking’s future into the hands of the people whose daily financial lives will most be affected by that future, Citi is leaning into a more democratic, user-focused business model. But how does it work?

It’s simple. Any tech enthusiast can apply to join Citi’s Canvas testing community. Once they’re signed up, Citi will contact select Canvas members to participate in testing new features helping to generate and capture user feedback for future product development.

This experience takes fascinating and often surprising turns. For instance, recent tests on the Canvas platform had members researching whether the amount of steps one takes per day has any effect on one’s spending habits, or whether thinking of budgets in terms of “wants, needs, and goals,” rather than purely monetary or traditional terms, can positively affect spending and saving.