Citi Revamps Its Wealth Business

Citigroup said Thursday that it has “unified” its institutional and retail wealth management teams to form Citi Global Wealth.

Incoming CEO Jane Fraser and current Citi CEO Michael Corbat announced the reorganization in an internal memo:  “We are going to put the full force of the firm behind this effort to create a single, integrated platform that will serve clients from the affluent level all the way through to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and households.”

The new group will be led by Jim O’Donnell, who most recently was global head of investor sales and relationship management. He has been with Citi since July 1999.

“Making wealth management a key differentiator and source of enhanced returns for Citi will be an important element of our strategy going forward, and putting the full force of our firm behind an offering in this way is indicative of the approach we’re taking to transforming our bank,” Corbat and Fraser explained.

The two groups forming the new unit are Global Consumer Banking (GCB), which services clients with at least $10,000 in assets, and the Institutional Clients Group, for those with $25 million or more in assets.

The GCB manages about $200 billion. Citi’s Private Bank — which is part of its Institutional Clients Group — has $550 billion in total client business and 13,000 clients, including 25% of the world’s billionaires.

The Private Bank has about 3,300 employees, while the GCB has a few thousand across Asia, the United States and Mexico, according to Citibank.