Citi’s hiring spree sets in motion its $150b AUM goal

INTERVIEW Citi’s hiring spree sets in motion its $150b AUM goal

The bank looks to hire 1,500 new employees in SG and triple its assets under management.

Who sets bold goals of hiring new staff equal to 20% of the firm’s current headcount, and tripling the client assets being handled, all in just three years? Citigroup, that’s who. The bank’s Singapore arm plans to hire 1,500 more bankers and more than double the number of its wealth management clients by 2025.

“Singapore is one of four global Wealth Management Hubs for Citi where we anticipate attractive financial growth and high returns,” Ashmita Acharya, Citibank Singapore Retail Banking Head, told Asian Banking & Finance in an exclusive interview.

From 2020 to 2021 alone, the bank saw a 25% growth in its headcount for Citigold and Citigold Private Client Relationship Managers.

“We are targeting to grow further in those segments this year, going broader in our talent selection and proactively including non-traditional profiles as part of our workforce expansion strategy,” Acharya added.

This is part of Citi’s broader goal for Asia-Pacific: an additional $150b in assets under management (AUM) by 2025 with 2,300 additional hires to support the ongoing growth of Citi’s wealth business in the region.

Already, its efforts are bearing fruit, according to data shared by Acharya.

“We saw a significant 81% year-on-year Citigold and Citigold Private Client new-to-bank acquisition, given the focused strategy to accelerate client growth as part of the bank’s Win in Wealth strategy,” Acharya said.

Citi’s investment AUM also increased by 14% with investment client penetration increasing by 15% year-onyear from 2020.

Supporting employees

Outside of talent hiring, the bank is also investing in its current employees, as well as infrastructure to better support its wealth proposition. For instance, Citi opened its largest wealth advisory hub globally at 268 Orchard Road in December 2020 and bolstered marketing efforts in 2021 to attract more wealth management customers.

For its relationship managers (RM), Acharya said that they provide an onboarding training program to equip them with critical knowledge and skills on Citi’s products, processes, and policies.

Notably, the bank has collaborated with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania USA to provide training to its RMs through curated wealth management training programs–available online, remote or virtual, within the campus.

Other customised experiential training interventions led to 16 different workshops, 331 sessions, and 1,085 training hours for over 230 employees, Acharya said.

The right platform

Building the right digital platform is also another key factor in Citi’s enhancement of its wealth management services. In 2021, the bank announced that it was creating Citi Global Wealth. Intended to be a single, integrated platform serving clients across the wealth continuum, from the affluent segment to ultra-high net worth clients, Citi Global Wealth will allow its retail clients to access more products, researchand content, and leverage the wealth continuum.

All this builds up to Citi’s ultimate proposition: a wealth management ecosystem that is customer-centric, with mobile engagement and client satisfaction as the two main thrusts that powers this banking experience.

“We work to transform banking by building an ecosystem of strong digital tools such as our Total Wealth Advisor paired with insightful face-to-face wealth advisory that resonates with clients,” Acharya said, adding that on their wealth management platform, they aim to understand clients’ needs and find the right portfolio solutions for them before entrusting them to the right advisor.

When asked regarding ongoing volatilities to global markets, Acharya noted that protection and growth of clients’ wealth are crucial to current-day–and future–wealth management services.

“It is human nature to want to pursue wealth augmentation whilst downplaying the risk of future financial erosion or loss. Securing and increasing the value of one’s investments must go hand-in-hand,” Acharya said.

Ashmita Acharya, Retail Banking Head, Citibank Singapore

It is human nature to want to pursue wealth augmentation