Citigroup to keep hiring in private banking push amid growth, rivalry in China’s Greater Bay Area
- Citigroup joins HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong) in boosting wealth managers in Bay area deemed as ‘richest megalopolis’
- US bank has the biggest headcount among foreign banks operating in Hong Kong
Citigroup, the biggest foreign banking group in Hong Kong by headcount, is ready to hire more wealth managers and give its private banking business a bump amid stiffer rivalry in the region, a top executive said.
The US bank remains focused on taking its new hires to 1,000 for the business by 2025, after adding 10o last year, said Horace Yip, head of Citi Private Bank’s operations in Hong Kong. The Greater Bay Area, with an expanding pool of multimillionaires, has turned the region into a fertile ground of opportunities, he added.
“The Bay area is definitely a growth engine for private banking business,” Yip said in a media interview. “Tax incentives, and other Hong Kong government’s efforts to promote family offices, will attract more wealthy families to invest here.”
The Bay area comprises Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in southern Guangdong province. There were more than 452,000 millionaire families with an aggregate assets of 2.7 trillion yuan (US$424 billion), making it the wealthiest megalopolis in the world, according to a Deloitte and CPA Australia report in late 2020.
