“Citigroup” to Close Banking Operations in 13 Countries Including Thailand

Citigroup to close its consumer banking businesses in 13 countries across Asia and Eastern Europe including Thailand in order to “double down” on wealth management. 

 

CEO Jane Fraser said that the group operations in Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam will be shut despite having “excellent businesses”, but it does not have “the scale” to compete in these aforementioned markets. 

 

“As a result of the ongoing refresh of our strategy, we have decided that we are going to double down on wealth. We will operate our consumer banking franchise in Asia and EMEA solely from four wealth centres, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE and London,” she said in a statement.

 

However, Citigroup did not mention a timeframe for withdrawal. 

 

Currently, there are 18 Citibank branches located in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region and about 12 provincial branches.