Citi Asia Pacific Consumer Bank Wealth Management Targets Double Digit Growth in Clients and AUMs in 2018

Hong Kong/Singapore – The targets for 2018 across Citi's Consumer Bank franchise in Asia Pacific reflect the momentum from the bank's strategy of being the leader in wealth management in the region for the affluent and emerging affluent segments.

The bank grew its assets under management by 17 percent last year on the back of a 13 percent increase in client growth and a strong year in net new money flows. In the fourth quarter of 2017, investment sales reached US$10.7 billion, up 47 percent versus the same period in 2016.

Gonzalo Luchetti, Head of Retail Banking for Citi Asia Pacific, said: "Our segment-led client-centric strategy is generating strong results and fueling our growth momentum. Over the past two years we have reallocated resources to build out Wealth Management Hubs, accelerated digital investments to better engage with clients and invested in strengthening our core value propositions. We have an offering that allows customers to engage with us through an array of digital touch-points with access to better-trained Relationship Managers who are able to have more constructive, needs-based conversations supported by the best digital advisory experience. We are confident of continuing to match the growth we are seeing through 2018 across our wealth value propositions."

Citi is looking to acquire more emerging affluent and affluent clients, who it serves through three distinct value propositions: Citi Priority, Citigold and Citigold Private Client.

Collectively, these propositions cater to clients from US$25,000 to US$10,000,000 in investable assets, making Citi a key wealth partner across a client's wealth continuum.

Citi's Wealth Management business is part of its Consumer Banking franchise, which in Asia Pacific comprises 12 markets in the region and five in EMEA. The business ended the fourth quarter of last year with its sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth. For the full year 2017, revenues were up 7 percent at US$ 3.7 billion and net income increased double-digit by 16 percent.

According to The Boston Consulting Group's Global Wealth 2017 report, Asia Pacific is set to become the world's wealthiest region by 2019.

Citi has 69 Wealth Management Hubs in the region where Relationship Managers are grouped together, leading to productivity gains and heightened client engagement. The bank's Relationship Managers are trained through the Citi Wharton Global Wealth Institute, an executive education program launched by Citi and The Wharton School in 2015 to enable front liners to have richer advisory conversations with their clients.

In 2017, the Wealth business showcased its client propositions through the launch of the successful and predominantly digital 'Wealth On Your Terms' campaign across 12 markets in the region, resulting in record-breaking milestones.

In a first for Citi globally, last year also saw the launch of 'Hello'—a new video banking capability for Wealth clients in India. Using Citi's mobile app, Citigold clients in India can now converse with Relationship Managers and Investment Experts via video and execute real-time investment transactions. This will be rolled out across markets in Asia in 2018.

Another first for the bank was the launch of a region-wide next-generation wealth management program targeted at young adults from the Citigold Private Client business. Held in Singapore and London, the Young Successor Program curated insights and wealth and financial management elements that were of particular relevance to the over 80 attendees who are increasingly involved in the handling of their family's wealth.

"Our efforts in 2018 will build on the progress we have made across our key areas of focus. We will continue to transform and digitize, deepen client engagement, and strengthen our wealth offerings to ensure the relevancy of our business model. These efforts coupled by growth opportunities in the region will ensure we are well-positioned to accelerate our growth momentum and meet our targets for the year," added Gonzalo.

Citi is a leading wealth manager in the region with over US$256 billion in assets under management and more than 400,000 emerging affluent and affluent clients.

Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

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Media Contacts:
James Griffiths +852-2868-7668 james.a.griffiths@citi.com