[SINGAPORE] In 1902, Citi established an office in Singapore. Fast forward 123 years, Citi has thrived and grown along with Singapore and has a much larger presence here.
But with US President Donald Trump imposing hefty tariffs right, left and centre, will banking and trade activities be derailed?
When asked for his reaction to the developments, Citi’s head of international Ernesto Torres Cantu told The Business Times: “We are seeing a fundamental shift in global trade and capital flows. Our global network was built to support our clients precisely in such moments of uncertainty and volatility. With our complementary mix of businesses, we can connect the dots across markets, provide real-time insights, and execute at scale for our clients.”
Cantu’s optimism may not be all that misplaced. Singapore is part of the Asia South region, which is one of the fastest-growing regions for Citi, based on the latest financial year’s numbers.
Asia South – which comprises the Indian sub-continent and Asean – has been delivering growth across all segments. For FY2024, banking was up 8 per cent, markets saw double-digit growth of 15 per cent, wealth was just a shade behind with 14 per cent, while services was 12 per cent.
Increasingly, this region is an important area for Citi’s clients. Over the past five years, Citi has seen client activity grow in terms of flows between US and Asean, US and India as well as between China and Asean. These flows registered double-digit growth over the period.
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In October 2024, Citi was among the group of investment bankers handling the US$3 billion initial public offering for Hyundai Motor India, the largest such deal in the country’s capital market history.
Such numbers support the view that the wide-ranging restructuring exercise Citi chief executive Jane Fraser embarked on in September 2023 is reaping dividends.
Cantu, who was in Singapore last month before news of the tariffs broke, said: “The transformation allows the CEO to have direct contact with each of the businesses, and provides transparency to the market in terms of the profitability and the performance of each one of the businesses.”
Citi’s business, which was previously run on geographical lines, was simplified to focus on five business lines – namely banking, markets, services, wealth management and US personal banking. Each business line’s CEO reports directly to Fraser.
International covers Citi’s geographies outside of North America and is headed by Cantu, who also reports to Fraser directly. Previously, the countries were grouped into three regions; now more than 90 countries and jurisdictions come under Cantu, who was appointed to the role in September 2023.
Having a “country-agnostic, product-agnostic view allows us to have one comprehensive view across markets and speeds up the flow of information between the different geographies of the world much faster than before”, he noted.
Cantu, who formerly ran the Latin America region, used to meet his fellow heads of the other two regions regularly, usually at least once every quarter. Still, with all the countries now under his watch, decision-making has become that much faster.
“The six clusters that we have, we meet weekly – and that allows for an exchange of information to be much more efficient. An opportunity with a client anywhere in the world can be addressed immediately. In the past, it may have taken longer due to more layers of approval.”
Part of the transformation involved reducing the number of layers in the business from around 13 levels to eight levels.
In Singapore, Citi offers a full spectrum of banking offerings and is a critical node for global operations.
In the wealth business for example, there are only four Citi wealth centres around the world and Singapore is one of them, as Citi taps on the country’s status as Asia’s principal hub for family offices.
Singapore employs around 8,000 people – a figure which includes contractors and non-employees on fixed-term projects.
Other services from Citi include comprehensive liquidity solutions to corporate clients, many of whom have set up regional treasury centres and liquidity structures in Singapore, through which they manage their cash flow.
Citi’s markets business in Singapore covers all the global offerings, including rates, spread products, foreign exchange and commodities.
Singapore also hosts one of only two of the bank’s cybersecurity fusion centres in the world. The other information and crisis response hub is in New York.
Citi expects Singapore and Asia South to grow and benefit from more investments and trade flows.
Cantu noted: “Supply chains are changing in a very significant way. Clients are moving supply chains for resiliency and for many countries, we are the only bank that is always there. We are present in 24 markets in Europe, more than most European banks.
“That will allow us to advise them when they are moving from one location to another. It’s important to have a physical presence. If you are a CEO or a chief financial officer of a business that wants to start operations for the first time in the Czech Republic for example, you would want a bank who can meet you this afternoon and we can do that.”
“We can also help you in the process of starting up your business as we have on the ground expertise,” Cantu said. He concluded: “We have been in Singapore for 123 years – it is one of the markets we’ve had the longest presence in.”
