“We’re trying to reward behavior clients are already doing – investing or banking – but not always with us,” Kate Luft, Citi’s head of retail banking, said in an interview.

Citi is offering its customers higher savings rates as an incentive to bring more of their money to the bank, as part of the lender’s push to deepen client relationships.

“With the industry being so focused on promotions, you see a lot of money in motion,” said Kate Luft, Citi’s head of retail banking. “This is a disruptor to stop money in motion.”

The $2.6 trillion-asset lender seeks to draw in more of its customers’ $3 trillion in assets not held at the bank, and premium boost, announced last month, is an effort to nudge clients toward consolidation, she said. It builds on Citi’s move to simplify its retail banking products with relationship tiers, similar to airlines, based on a customer’s deposits and investments at the bank.

“We’re trying to reward behavior clients are already doing – investing or banking – but not always with us,” Luft said in an interview.

The bank said Monday it will offer Citigold private clients a 4.35% annual percentage yield, Citigold customers 4% and Citi Priority clients 3.5%, if they also have a checking account and a certain direct deposit amount flowing into the account or maintain an average balance in investment accounts.

The three tiers range from $30,000 to $1 million-plus in combined average monthly balance.

Luft said the “always-on” savings boost is the final component of the bank’s value proposition intended to fuel growth in Citi’s retail bank, which counts about 4 million customers and is part of the lender’s wealth segment.

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