Citigroup is shuffling the top ranks of its consumer business, as the bank focuses on more profitable customers, and attempts to streamline its sprawling operations in dozens of countries.
Jonathan Larsen, the bank’s global head of retail banking, and head of consumer banking for Asia Pacific, will also take control of Citigroup’s US retail banking and mortgage portfolio, according to internal announcements reviewed by Quartz.
“Jonathan’s passion and now his sole focus” will be “designing the bank of the future,” Stephen Bird, the head of Citigroup’s global consumer bank, wrote in one memo. Larsen, who has headed retail banking since 2012, was previously head of the bank in Singapore, and head of the global banks’ consumer operations in Southeast Asia.
Will Howle, Citi’s head of retail banking in the US, and C.D. Davies, who runs the US mortgage business, will now report to Larsen.
Anand Selvakesari, a 23-year Citigroup veteran who formerly ran the consumer bank in China and India, will become head of consumer banking for Asia, the memo said.
Selvakesari joined Citibank in 1991, and managed retail banking in Taiwan, as well as spent almost a decade in Singapore, where he held various positions in investments, wealth management and retail banking.
In April, Citigroup named Bird, formerly the bank’s chief executive in Asia, to head the bank’s global consumer bank, which includes a network of 3,300 branches. Today’s US and Asia shakeup is part of the bank’s ongoing shift to Asia and other fast-growth markets, while trimming low-profit businesses in favor of wealthier clients.
The management changes are expected to be announced tomorrow.