Citi turns focus to Asia
(31 May 2017 – Asia) Citi is expanding its corporate banking presence across the Asia-Pacific region, as concerns mount over the U.S.’s retraction from global trade.
According to the Financial Times, the US-based bank is looking to bolster its corporate banking operations in the region, as China’s influence and importance increases on the global trade stage. The reports indicate that Citi will be adding new staff to its APAC operations and planning to lift lending volume.
The bank’s head of corporate banking in the Asia-Pacific region, Gerald Keefe said: “APAC markets are all increasingly interlinked with one another,” he told the publication. “That just winds up creating a very different picture in the next 10 to 20 years,” a picture, he added, that is “much more geared around China than one that has historically been geared around the US”
The bank will focus on Korea, India, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Taiwan for its growth efforts across all its major business units including treasury, trade finance, cash management, business loans and other enterprise-focused services, reports added.
According to Keefe, Citi aims to double growth in these trade corridors and add up to US$2 billion in new corporate loans. Currently, the Asia Pacific region records around 25 percent of Citi’s overall earnings.
Citi has also launched new technology platforms to boost corporate banking engagement. Earlier this year, the bank launched an API to connect corporate treasurers’ treasury management and ERP systems to Citi solutions.