Citigroup appointed a veteran Singapore banker on Monday to spearhead its push into the Chinese consumer banking arena as the country prepares to open a $1.5 trillion savings pool to foreign lenders. Lee Ah Boon, previously head of the bank's consumer business in Singapore, will assume much the same responsibilities in his new capacity as country business manager in China for the world's top financial services firm, the bank said in a statement.
Lee would oversee Citibank's credit card alliance with Shanghai-listed mainland partner Pudong Development Bank Co Ltd, the bank said. It holds under 5 percent of the Chinese lender at present.
A Citigroup spokesman said Lee had already moved to the city.
He would report to China chief executive Richard Stanley and Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of the bank's global consumer group in the Asia Pacific.
Citigroup said in March it planned to open another 200 consumer finance branches in Asia in 2005 as it targeted double-digit growth in the region.
It currently operates some 400 consumer finance branches across Asia, it has said.