As news coverage about Citi focuses on yesterday’s results (click here for our report) two senior bankers in Greater China have quietly left the US bank.
Eugene Qian, China head of corporate and investment banking, has resigned for personal reasons, while Roger Zhu, investment banking head in the country, has retired, according to a Bloomberg report, which quoted anonymous sources at the bank.
Zhu will be particularly missed. A former CICC banker, he has valuable connections across Chinese state enterprises and private companies and was involved in large-scale IPOs for the likes of ICBC and Shanghai Auto, reports Finance Asia. As we noted in November, Western banks in China are chasing more M&A and IPO business from mainland clients and senior mainland-focused bankers are in high demand. Citi is one of the leading foreign banks in Asia and employs 10,000 people in China alone. Its third-quarter Asian net income was up 39% year-on-year.
There has been a flurry of comings-and-goings in North Asian banking in recent weeks as firms reposition themselves for the next 12 months. Citi itself named Gonzalo Luchetti as its new head of retail banking for Asia Pacific last week. And there have also been major moves at Deutsche Bank, UBS, CLSA and Morgan Stanley.
Meanwhile:
Bookmaker tips Standard Chartered boss to stand down. (Bloomberg)
DBS continues China push with joint-venture consumer finance company. (Straits Times)
Shadow banking sector stages comeback in China. (Bloomberg)
INSEAD opens $55m leadership centre in Singapore. (HR online)