Citigroup will exit its consumer banking operations in India as part of an ongoing strategic review, it said on Thursday.
In its first-quarter 2021 results, Citigroup announced strategic actions in Global Consumer Banking across 13 markets, including Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
In a statement, the bank said this “will allow Citi to direct investments and resources to the businesses where it has the greatest scale and growth potential.”
Ashu Khullar, CEO of Citi India said, “There is no immediate change to our operations and no immediate impact to our colleagues as a result of this announcement. In the interim, we will continue to serve our clients with the same care, empathy and dedication that we do today.”
The focus will be on institutional banking.
He further said the strategy announced today will strengthen its ability to bring the full global power of Citi to our institutional clients, reinforcing its leading positions across corporate, commercial and investment banking, treasury and trade solutions, as well as Markets and Securities Services.
In its results statement, Citigroup said it would focus its Global Consumer Bank presence in Asia and EMEA on four wealth centres — Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE and London.
“While the other 13 markets have excellent businesses, we don’t have the scale we need to compete. 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,” said Jane Fraser, Citi CEO.
“We will continue to update you on strategic decisions as we make them while we work to increase the returns we deliver to our shareholders,” she further said.
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.