Citibank Romania to drop retail line on group decision

Newsroom 06/12/2012 | 09:49

Citibank Romania said it would focus more its corporate and commercial banking business, after Citigroup announced on Wednesday it would axe more than 11,000 jobs worldwide and bring annual expense savings of EUR 1.1 billion from 2014, as part of a repositioning program.

Citi said the current economic environment makes it impossible to achieve the targeted scale and profitability rates “fast enough”, although it has a fast growing portfolio in Romania. Corporate and commercial banking represent growth areas for Citibank.

“In the forthcoming period, the bank will continue to grow its business operations for corporate, financial institutions and commercial banking clients in Romania,” said the company in a press statement. “We would like to underline that this decision does not affect Citi’s commitment to Romania which stretches back to 1996.”

Citigroup said it would sell or significantly scale back consumer operations in Pakistan, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey and Uruguay. The lender will also close 14 branches in Brazil, seven in Hong Kong, four in Hungary, 15 in Korea and 44 in the US.

“These actions are logical next steps in Citi’s transformation. While we are committed to – and our strategy continues to leverage – our unparalleled global network and footprint, we have identified areas and products where our scale does not provide for meaningful returns,” said Michael Corbat, Citi’s CEO.