Citi sees strong growth in banking clients

Citi anticipates strong revenue growth in intra-Asia trade corridors in 2019

Citi’s client growth will mainly come through a series of key trade corridors in the Asia Pacific region that the bank has identified and invested further resources in which has supported growth.

The bank’s key corridors include Korea to ASEAN, Korea to China, Korea to India, Japan to the ASEAN, Japan to China and China to the ASEAN.

“Asia is capturing a greater share of global trade and US companies will increasingly target Asia and we expect strong growth as intra-Asian trade corridors expand further,” said Gerry Keefe, Citi’s head of Corporate Banking, Asia Pacific.

Having recognised the shift in trade flows and the stronger presence that China and broader Asia will continue to play in the movement of trade flows, Citi put in place a strategy to capitalise on the ongoing growth along these corridors.

Vietnam is strategically located neighbouring China to the South and central to the ASEAN. Moreover, the Vietnamese government provides a business friendly environment and the country boasts of high manufacturing output and improving infrastructure.

Vietnam is exporting more and more manufactured goods to Asia and the rest of the world and is a fantastic place to showcase Citi’s Asia-to-Asia flow strategy.

Citi opened additional Asia desks over 2017 and 2018 to help clients as they look to expand to new areas and markets across these corridors.

The bank now has over 20 Asia desks in operation – including 11 China Desks, nine Korea Desks and an India Desk in New York and Korea.

In the last two years, Citi set up a Japan Desk and a Korea Desk in Vietnam to serve Japanese and South Korean corporate clients, as part of Citi Asia Pacific’s strategy to better connect its global network to Asian clients and capture a greater share of Intra-Asia Flows.

“Our established network and product capabilities ensure that Citi is well placed to help clients mitigate risks and thrive in this environment,” said Gerry.

The work Citi does for clients in these corridors includes capital raising, M&A, trade finance, cash management and FX hedging.

Clients include all of Asia’s major corporate champions and emerging champions and also leading companies in the Fortune 500 – where Citi already banks 90 per cent of this group in the region.

“We are banking many of Asia’s corporate champions and major MNCs with the country desks supporting clients globally. With a global network and in-depth local expertise in each of our markets, we are uniquely positioned to advise our clients as they think through this evolutionary process and the potential future optimisation of their operations and supply chains,” said Gerry.

Citi has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions.

The bank provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.