KUALA LUMPUR: Citigroup Inc intends to pursue exits from its consumer franchises in 13 markets across Asia and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions, including Malaysia.
In a statement today, Citi said the affected businesses include the consumer franchises in Australia, Bahrain, China,India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Citi said it will focus its global consumer bank presence in the two regions on four wealth centres — Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and London.
Citi Malaysia chief executive officer Usman Ahmed said the company has been in Malaysia for over 60 years and today's global announcement about strategic actions in the Consumer Bank across 13 of its markets does not in any way dilute its long term commitment to Malaysia or the Asia Pacific region.
He said with this strategic re-positioning, the company will be able to further invest its resources in significantly growing its institutional business in Malaysia.
The business spanned across corporate and investment banking, commercial banking, markets (including equity brokerage) and treasury and trade solutions.
"In addition, our Citi Solutions Centers in Kuala Lumpur and Penang also remain an equally important operations hub for Citi, from where we execute millions of financial transactions worth over US$29 trillion annually for over 50 countries across the globe.
"There is no immediate change to our operations, and no immediate impact to our colleagues as a result of today's announcement by Citi to pursue an exit from our consumer bank business in Malaysia.
"We will continue to serve our consumer banking customers with the same dedication as we do today," he said.
Citi today reported net income for the first quarter (Q1) of 2021 of US$7.9 billion, or US$3.62 per diluted share, on revenues of US$19.3 billion.
This compared to net income of US$2.5 billion, or US$1.06 per diluted share, on revenues of US$20.7 billion for Q1 2020.