Citibank bets on wealth management

Citibank Korea Senior Executive Vice President Brendan Carney holds a press briefing on the U.S. bank’s business strategy for the second half of the year in Korea at the Chosun Hotel in central Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Citibank Korea

By Choi Kyong-ae

Citibank Korea will strengthen its wealth management business and increase investments in mobile banking to tackle low growth and low margins, a bank executive said Wednesday.

“We will focus on more affluent segments in Korean markets,” Citibank Korea Senior Executive Vice President Brendan Carney said in Seoul. “We think that the year of selling individual products to customers is over. Customers want advice and recommendations based on their needs.”

Citibank will help customers manage their assets with “right model portfolios,” said Carney, who also serves as chief of Global Consumer Banking Group at Citibank Korea.

To meet rapidly changing customer demands, Citibank Korea plans to introduce four customer segments -- Citigold private client, for those with assets of more than 1 billion won ($840,000); Citigold, for those with 2 billion won to 10 billion won; City priority (50 million won to 200 million won), and Citibanking (less than 50 million won).

Citibank Korea accounts for about 8 percent of those who deposited assets valued at more than 1 billion won at banks in Korea, according to the bank.

“We are putting a bigger focus on attracting more high-wealth earners in order to increase the market share to 10 percent,” Citibank Korea Chief Executive, Park Jin-hei, said, without giving a time frame.

As for concerns about Citibank’s exit from Korea following streamlining, he said the bank is not shrinking but transforming.

Meanwhile, Citibank Korea said it will make an investment to promote financial technology, or fintech, partnerships with information-technology companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Uber.

“Customer transactions are rapidly migrating to easier channels or more present channels,” Carney said. “You have a branch in your pocket.”

Over the past decade, transactions on mobile devices jumped to 54 percent of total transactions in July from 23 percent in July 2006. In contrast, transactions at branches plunged to 6 percent from 31 percent during the same period, Citibank data showed.