Citi Commercial Bank installs the China counter in Singapore

SINGAPORE – Citi’s commercial banking unit has set up a Chinese counter in Singapore dedicated to helping “emerging” Chinese companies expand into the city-state and Southeast Asia, the bank told CNBC.

Citi Commercial Bank serves growing medium-sized businesses with annual revenues of up to $ 1 billion. Many of these Chinese companies have watched the expansion abroad, although their large domestic market offers many opportunities for growth.

And Singapore, a financial and business hub in Southeast Asia, has become a favorite destination among Chinese companies of various sizes. Leading Chinese companies that have expanded into Singapore include technology giant Tencent, owner of TikTok ByteDance and video streaming platform iQiyi.

“Singapore and the wider ASEAN region are key markets for the growth of expanding Chinese emerging companies. Most of these customers are establishing holding companies in Singapore for their ASEAN units,” said Lin Hsiu-Yi , ASEAN and Singapore, head of Citi Commercial Bank.

ASEAN refers to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an economic bloc made up of ten countries in the region, including Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

The new counter in China is headed by Mona Zhang, a banker who previously focused on medium-sized businesses at Citi Commercial Bank’s office in China. Citi Commercial Bank’s other China-focused desks are in Hong Kong and India.

The move by several Chinese technology companies to establish or expand operations in Singapore over the past year is also occurring as a regulatory reduction of major technologies in China is being implemented. Regulators have focused on monopolistic practices, data collection, and use, and have now focused their attention on how companies use algorithms to sell products to consumers.

Citi said its revenue to support China’s business activity and flows to Singapore doubled last year compared to the previous year. The number of customers based in China that the US banking giant in Singapore works with grew by 35% last year, Citi said.

The creation of Citi Commercial Bank’s new Chinese counter in Singapore followed the bank’s announcement in April that it plans to exit retail banking in 13 markets. Many of these markets are in the Asia-Pacific, including Australia, China, India and Indonesia.

Jane Fraser, Citi’s chief executive, told CNBC in April that the bank “doubled” in areas such as global institutional banking and wealth management in the U.S. and Asia. Commercial banking is part of Citi’s institutional business.

Within Asia, China’s “strong presence” in trade flows and business activity means the bank will seek to expand China’s counter in Singapore and establish new ones in other markets, Rajat Madhok said. head of Citi Commercial Bank in Asia-Pacific. .

Citi Commercial Bank operates in 11 Asian and Pacific markets, contributing about a third of the bank’s global commercial banking revenue.