Citigroup to increase China workforce to 12,000

Nw York: Citigroup plans to almost triple its workforce in China to as many as 12,000 people in the next three years, intensifying its rivalry with HSBC Holdings in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

The New York-based bank will hire more in China than in any other Asia-Pacific country, Stephen Bird, Citigroup's co-chief executive officer for the region, said yesterday in an interview. The expansion may make China Citigroup's third-largest market by staff, after the USand Mexico, said spokesman James Griffiths.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit is raising his bet on China, where banks extended a record $1.4 trillion (Dh5 trillion) of new loans last year. Unlike HSBC and Standard Chartered, Citigroup has no plans to sell shares in China and will instead fund expansion with money generated in Asia, Bird said on August 25.

"This is a strong message from Citigroup that signals the bank's focus and dedication to the country," said Michael Werner, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co in Hong Kong. "China is one of the most attractive and profitable countries in the world to be operate a bank."

Citigroup has 4,500 employees in China and 50,000 in Asia, according to Griffiths. Standard Chartered, the UK bank that gets more than three-quarters of profit from Asia, has more than 4,000 employees at its China unit. HSBC, Europe's largest lender by market value, has more than 5,000. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. had 390,000 workers at the end of 2009.

"China is one of Citi's priority markets globally," said Bird, 43. "We have aggressive consumer banking expansion plans and want to open branches as fast as regulators in China will let us."

Citigroup has 29 outlets in the country and plans to add 10 more this year. That will still leave it short of HSBC's 102 outlets and the 59 operated by Standard Chartered.

New hiring

Bird said consumer and institutional banking will account for about 80 per cent of new hiring in China. The remainder will mainly be for technology support and data processing, he said. China is luring foreign lenders scarred by the global financial crisis that forced Citigroup into a $45 billion bailout.