The American multinational investment bank and financial services company, Citigroup, will exit consumer and retail operations in 13 countries including India and China.
“As a result of the ongoing refresh of our strategy, we have decided that we are going to double down on wealth,” CEO Jane Fraser said.
The firm will operate its consumer banking franchise in Asia and EMEA solely from Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE and London, to capture the strong growth and attractive returns through these hubs.
Though other 13 markets have excellent businesses, the firm does not have the scale it needs to compete, Jane said.
“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,” she added.
The 13 nations Citibank will shutter its operations are Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The firm also said the strategy will strengthen its ability to bring the full global power of Citi to its institutional clients, reinforcing its leading positions across corporate, commercial and investment banking, treasury and trade solutions, as well as Markets and Securities Services.
For the year ended March 31, 2020, Citibank India reported a net profit of ₹4,912 crore. Citi’s commercial banking segment served over 3,000 clients, and Citibank India served 2.9 million retail customers with 1.2 million bank accounts and 2.2 million credit card accounts, as of March 31, 2020.
