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On The Move
Citi announces leadership changes in Asia-Pacific
The Asset 14 Apr 2015

Citi CEO Michael Corbat on April 13 announced leadership changes in Asia-Pacific with Francisco Aristeguieta being named as the new CEO for Asia-Pacific. This comes as Stephen Bird, currently the CEO of Asia-Pacific, is appointed to a new role as CEO of global consumer bank, succeeding Manuel Medina-Mora, who will be retiring in several weeks.

 
During the course of his 17 years at Citi, Bird, who will be relocated from Hong Kong to New York, has gained deep experience in consumer banking and Citi’s operations across several geographies. In various roles in Asia, he has helped established Citi as a leading bank, significantly increasing net income by focusing on target clients across the region.
 
Under Bird’s leadership, Citi has established the position as Asia’s leading bank and grown into the highest-earning part of Citi after North America. Indeed, Asia has been shaped into Citi’s most balanced and consistent earnings generator that has outperformed its peers through the economic cycle. In 2014, Asia generated for about a fifth of Citi’s global revenues at 20.7% or US$14.79 billion.
 
Citi Asia exceeds Citi’s total company return and efficiency targets and is on track to achieve its own 2015 targets. When Bird joined Citi in Asia in the late 1990s, the total net income being generated was less than US$1 billion per annum. Today, Citi generates in excess of US$1 billion net income per quarter in Asia.
 
Citi Asia has been developed into an accomplished producer of talent for the bank and, indeed, the industry. In the last few years, Bird’s Asia leadership team has produced more senior leaders for Citi than any other part of the world. The global head of risk (Brad Hu), global consumer CFO (Nick Lyall), global head of retail bank (Jonathan Larsen) and global head of FX (Nadir Mahmud) all came from Bird’s team.
 
Bird has invested a lot of time in China and served on the board of Citi’s successful joint venture with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for four years and later divested in 2012 at a profit. He also led the bank in the establishment of a securities joint venture with Orient Securities, also in 2012. During the same year, Citi became the first foreign bank to launch a sole-branded credit card and commercial card in China.
 
Aristeguieta, who is currently CEO of Latin America (LatAm), is a 21-year veteran of Citi and has extensive experience in emerging markets. He simplified Citi’s business in LatAm by effectively managing the optimization of its consumer franchise. He has reallocated resources to where they generate the best returns, while increasing wallet share with its top institutional clients.
 
Both Bird and Aristeguieta will assume their new posts effective June 1.

 

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