Citi Has Strong First Half in Asia Wealth Management

Citi attracted close to US$15 billion in net new money (NNM) across its wealth management business—Citi Global Wealth—in Asia Pacific, the majority from the bank's wealth hubs, marking one of the strongest half years on record for the bank's wealth business. This included adding US$8 billion in the second quarter with AUMs up 21% year on year.

The strong NNM growth was supported by the addition of several hundred wealth professionals in Asia Pacific so far this year. The hiring is part of plans to add an extra 2,300 wealth staff including 1,100 RMs and PBs to support clients and grow client assets by US$150 billion by 2025.

Growth came across the bank's client base from affluent, to HNW and UHNW and was underpinned by strong investment sales.

"We are capturing market share as Asian clients increasingly require portfolio advice, design and allocation geared toward diversification of asset types and geographic exposures. As the world's most global bank, with broad-based expertise across investment products, we are strongly positioned and fully committed to serving these needs," said Peter Babej, Citi CEO Asia Pacific.

Asia Pacific is a key market for Citi's global wealth ambition. Citi announced at first quarter earnings in January that it is doubling down on wealth with a focus on four wealth centers across Hong Kong, Singapore, London and UAE.

In January, Citi announced the formation of Citi Global Wealth (CGW), aligning the Private Bank and the Consumer Wealth business under the leadership of Jim O'Donnell, formerly Global Head of Investor Sales and Relationship Management. Leveraging Citi's aspirational wealth management brand, CGW's strategy is focused on delivering the firm's global network, high quality research and leading capital markets expertise. In Asia, Steven Lo and Fabio Fontainha were recently named co-heads of Citi Global Wealth for the region.

Citi's Global Wealth franchise in Asia includes Citigold (affluent), Citigold Private Client (Core HNW) and Citi Private Bank (Upper HNW and Ultra HNW).