By Selena Li
HONG KONG, May 22 (Reuters) - Citigroup plans to allocate a significant portion of its global wealth management hiring to Asia, where its private bank is growing faster and generating higher productivity than in other regions, the bank's global wealth head Andy Sieg said.
The U.S. bank's recently unveiled hiring plans would be "anchored" in Asia along with other regions, said Sieg, who formerly led Merrill Lynch's wealth business and was brought in by Citi CEO Jane Fraser in 2023 to lead
a revamp of the wealth unit.
Citi plans to hire about 100 private bankers globally, alongside roughly 400 other specialists, as part of a broader effort to lift returns in its wealth business, he said at the bank's investor day event earlier this month.
"In the private bank, our business in Asia is the fastest growing part of our private bank," Sieg said in an interview in Hong Kong. "It's the most productive area of the private bank."
He declined to elaborate on the hiring plan in the region, but said "a significant percentage of the hiring will be here in Asia, you know, commensurate with the fact that this is a large percentage of our global business."
Citi this month set a target of return on tangible common equity for the wealth unit of 15% to 20% in 2027 and 2028 and above 20% over the medium term. The wealth unit delivered a net income rise of nearly 50% to $1.5 billion in 2025 from a year earlier.
Asia is a key pillar of that strategy, Sieg said.
The bank's Asia wealth business, including Japan, Asia North and Australia and Asia South, generated about $3 billion in revenue in 2025, or about 35% of Citi's global wealth revenue, the bank's latest official filings show.
Sieg said Indonesia was a good example of how Citi can support wealthy clients during periods of market and policy uncertainty.
"It's also complex right now," he said. "Markets have been volatile, political and policy changes being announced every few days."
Citi has retained its wealth, cards and retail banking operations in Hong Kong and Singapore, even as it moved in recent years to exit consumer banking in 14 markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Mexico as part of Fraser's strategy to simplify the firm and focus capital on higher-return businesses.
The bank is seeking to increase income from existing clients, having merged retail banking into the wealth unit in the U.S. in the first quarter.
"Jane and the board, they will not be satisfied with a business which is only marginally advanced from where we are today," Sieg said.
"They expect us to build an industry leader in wealth management."
(Reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
