Citigroup Inc, the largest US bank by assets, unveiled a reorganisation of its Asia-Pacific business on Monday that gives regional heads increased authority across the bank's sprawling product lines. Citigroup's Asia business will be split geographically into Japan, North Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia Pacific, and will be divided across seven product groupings.
For the first time, the regional heads will be responsible for all Citigroup's business within their geographic areas. Previously, New York-based Citigroup's Asia business was led by heads of its institutional clients group, global wealth management and consumer units.
"I want the client not to have to navigate Citigroup. I want us to navigate Citigroup and bring it together at the front end for them, and that's why you need to bring all the organisations and geographies together under one cluster head," Citigroup Asia-Pacific CEO Ajay Banga said in a telephone interview.
Citigroup has been criticised by shareholders and others for failing to get the most from its disparate businesses, with some calling for a break-up of the bank. Its shares have lost nearly 67 percent since the start of 2007.
"If you've got the business run through products it's very difficult to make everything come together across product lines for a client," Banga said. Before Banga's appointment in March, Citigroup did not have a region-wide chief executive for its Asia-Pacific business.
Citigroup has been among the biggest casualties of the subprime mortgage-related meltdown in the West and has been shedding jobs and non-core operations under CEO Vikram Pandit, who took over in December from Chuck Prince. Citigroup's Asia business has been a comparatively strong performer, and its regional operations have held steady at around 70,000 people since the start of the year as the bank has lost jobs in some areas and added headcount elsewhere.
Under the new Asia structure, the regional groupings will be supported by seven business groups: consumer banking and global cards; corporate and commercial banking; global transaction services; investment banking; markets; wealth management; and alternative investments. Doug Peterson will continue to lead Citigroup's Japan business, the company said. Stephen Bird, who ran consumer banking in Asia, will run North Asia and also continue to head consumer banking and global cards for all of Asia Pacific.
Sanjay Nayar will continue to lead South Asia and Piyush Gupta will lead Southeast Asia Pacific, the bank said. On the product side, Farhan Faruqui will continue to head corporate and commercial banking; Anthony Nappi will continue to run global transaction services; Mark Renton and Dan McNamara will continue to head investment banking; and Rodrigo Zorrilla and David Ratliff will be co-heads for markets.
Aamir Rahim, previously co-head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, is the new head of global wealth management for the region. Banga will personally lead alternative investments. "If you look at the structure, what I've basically done is taken some of our top talent in Asia and given them bigger jobs, and given them jobs that cut across multiple business lines," said Banga, who was previously chairman and chief executive of Citigroup's international global consumer business.
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