Citi rejigs its global consumer banking business with a planned exit from 13 markets, in a move to «double down on wealth.»
Citi will look to exit its consumer banking business in Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a statement.
Moving forward, Citi will operate its consumer banking franchise in Asia and EMEA solely through its four wealth centers: Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE and London.
«As a result of the ongoing refresh of our strategy, we have decided that we are going to double down on wealth,» said Citi CEO Jane Fraser. «While the other 13 markets have excellent businesses, we don’t have the scale we need to compete.»
ICG: Network Unchanged
Despite the consumer banking exits, Citi will not look to change its overall global network, retaining its institutional clients group (ICG) business in all its existing markets.
This is especially the case for Asia where it accounts for the highest net income contribution for the overall ICG business in 2020.
«The sharpened strategy that [Fraser] announced today will redouble Citi’s focus on areas where our global network delivers the highest value to clients,» said APAC CEO Peter Babej separately in a memo. «Asia is critical to our firm’s strategy and we will allocate resources to drive profitable growth for our franchise.»
Wealth Reshuffle
Citi will look to sharpen its focus on wealth management in fewer markets with the Asia unit falling under the newly appointed leadership of private and consumer banking heads Steven Lo and Fabio Fontainha.
Some of its ambitions include doubling assets under management (AUM) and tripling clients in its Singapore and Hong Kong business where it will look to add 330 and 300 relationship managers, respectively.
The strategic changes were announced as part of Citi's quarterly results where the bank posted profits of $7.94 billion in the first three months of 2021, tripling the same period last year ($2.54 billion).
