Israel's hi-tech district in Tel Aviv.

Citi Global Markets has opened a global financial data intelligence lab in Israel, as part of Citi’s Technology Innovation Center.  The decision to open the lab in Israel was based on Israel’s potential talent and activities in data, Globes reported.

The lab will lead projects of complex processing in large real time data and is headed by Oren Glickman, who was previously director of research at Shopping.com.

Citi Technology Innovation Center in Israel head Lyron Wahrmann said, “Today’s rapidly changing business environment and technological trends force financial institutions to be innovative. This new financial data intelligence lab will allow Citi to leverage existing capabilities, develop new business opportunities and lower business costs.”

The research team is expected to hire local talent with expertise in related fields such as machine learning and data mining.

Citi FX and Local Markets global head Anil Prasad said, “Big Data analysis is set to become an ever more critical element in our business…Giving client’s advice on the market and what it’s going to do and providing them the ability to hedge or invest makes our clients happier and makes our business better. That, I believe, is what big data analysis has the capacity to do. For this reason, one of the hottest areas in terms of hiring in our business right now is data scientists.”