Citigroup to exit 13 retail banking markets, together with India and China

Citigroup Inc. plans to exit retail banking in 13 markets throughout Asia and the Europe, Middle East and Africa area.
The financial institution will as a substitute function its consumer-banking franchise in each areas from 4 wealth facilities in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and London, it stated Thursday in an announcement. The transfer is a part of an ongoing evaluate of the corporate’s technique by Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser, who took over final month.
“This positions us to capture the strong growth and attractive returns the wealth-management business offers through these important hubs,” Fraser stated within the assertion.
Citigroup will exit its shopper franchises in Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The agency will proceed to supply merchandise in these markets to prospects of its institutional shoppers group, which homes the personal financial institution, cash-management arm and investment-banking and buying and selling companies.

The New York-based financial institution has already been constructing out a wealth-advisory hub in Singapore. The 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-meter) area is the most important of its form for the financial institution and has room for greater than 300 relationship managers and product specialists.
The withdrawal got here as Citigroup reported document quarterly revenue, boosted by the flurry of blank-check firms it helped take public within the first three months of the yr.

“While the other 13 markets have excellent businesses, we don’t have the scale we need to compete,” Fraser stated. “We believe our capital, investment dollars and other resources are better deployed against higher returning opportunities in wealth management and our institutional businesses in Asia.”