Hyderabad, Telangana, India, Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has appointed Rajesh Mani as Global Capability Center Managing Director for CFG India. He will lead the financial services company’s capability centre in Hyderabad as it scales its technology workforce and expands its engineering, data and digital capabilities.
In his new role, Mani will focus on building and developing technology talent, strengthening delivery capabilities and establishing closer alignment between CFG India and Citizens’ teams in the United States. He will also work with the company’s global technology vendor partners to support integrated execution across engineering and technology-transformation programmes.
Citizens Chief Information Officer Michael Ruttledge said Mani’s experience in scaling global organisations and building high-performing teams would support the development of engineering excellence at CFG India. The appointment adds dedicated leadership to the centre as Citizens seeks to build more technology expertise internally and accelerate the delivery of modern banking products and customer experiences.
Mani joins Citizens after an extensive career at Mastercard, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President and Head of Asia-Pacific Technology Hubs. In that position, he led Mastercard’s technology hubs across the region, supporting collaboration between technology teams, business units and local payments ecosystems. His responsibilities also covered technology talent development, organisational culture, ecosystem engagement and the strengthening of Mastercard’s technology brand across Asia-Pacific.
During his Mastercard tenure, Mani also served as Senior Vice President of the India Technology Hub and as Country Manager for Sri Lanka and the Maldives. His work included supporting digital payment infrastructure, financial-technology partnerships and Mastercard’s engagement with governments, financial institutions and technology companies. His broader career includes leadership experience at American Express, Airtel, ITC and Matrimony.com, alongside entrepreneurial experience. He holds an MBA from the Indian School of Business.
CFG India was established in Hyderabad in 2025 through a strategic partnership between Citizens and Cognizant. The centre was created to strengthen Citizens’ enterprise technology capabilities across software engineering, customer-experience platforms, data and analytics, cloud, cybersecurity and intelligent automation. At launch, the companies announced plans to create approximately 1,000 technology and data-related positions by March 2026.
Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens Financial Group is one of the largest financial institutions in the United States. It reported assets of $233.8 billion as of June 30, 2026, and provides retail, private banking, wealth management and commercial banking services. Citizens operates approximately 1,000 branches and 3,000 ATMs across 14 US states and the District of Columbia.
