Citi boosts corporate banking business in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — American banking giant Citi continues to strengthen its corporate banking business in the country with the expected completion of the sale of its retail-banking segment to Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines.

Fernando Fleury, corporate banking head at Citi Philippines, said in a virtual interview with The STAR that the largest foreign commercial bank in the Philippines is further beefing up its pool of talent.

Fleury said Citi has already increased its commercial banking team by 10 percent.

“We have already been strengthening the team. Since I came to the job a year ago, the team has grown in terms of number of people by more than 10 percent.  We are hiring talent from other firms and we want to attract the top talent,” Fleury said.

Citi’s history in the Philippines dates back to July 1902 when the International Banking Corp., forerunner of Citibank, first established a branch in Manila. As it is about to exit the consumer-banking segment, it continues to provide corporate banking, treasury, and transactional banking.

The Institutional Clients Group of Citi Philippines is a recognized leader in arranging and providing financial services for the public sector, top-tier Filipino corporates, multinationals, and financial institutions operating in the country.

It also offers innovative end-to-end cash management solutions, trade finance and services, securities custody and funds services, corporate banking and advisory services, and the most comprehensive and sophisticated range of treasury products in fixed income, currencies, commodities, and derivatives.

“We see the divestiture of the consumer bank as a real opportunity for us to get even more focused, more nimble, more aggressive, and more equipped with the resources we need to grow our institutional businesses,” Fleury said.

For his part, Citi Asia-Pacific head of banking, capital markets and advisory Jan Metzger said the decision of Citi to exit the retail banking landscape in the Philippines and 12 other markets in Asia as part of a strategic refocus.

UnionBank has already obtained the green light from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to acquire the consumer banking business of Citi in the Philippines.

The BSP has issued a notice dated July 18, 2022 approving the acquisition by UnionBank of Citigroup’s retail banking segment.

The acquisition is composed of selected consumer assets and liabilities, real estate properties and interests of Citi Square Building Corp. as well as 100 percent of the capital stock in Citicorp Financial Services and Insurance Brokerage Philippines Inc.

The Aboitiz-led bank emerged as the dark horse in the bidding for the retail-banking segment of Citi in the Philippines last year with an offer of P55 billion, edging the country’s largest lenders.

UnionBank raised P40 billion via a stock rights offering (SRO), wherein existing shareholders led by Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd., and pension fund manager Social Security System infused fresh equity to partially fund the acquisition.