Citi appoints Lee Lung Nien to head private bank in South Asia

CITI on Monday announced that Lee Lung Nien will head its private banking business in South Asia, in addition to his existing role as chairman of the private bank for the region.

In this new role, Mr Lee will have direct responsibility for the Singapore and Malaysia markets, while the bank's global market managers in South Asia will report to him as well.

Mr Lee remains based in Singapore and will report to Steven Lo, Asia-Pacific regional head of Citi Private Bank, and Amol Gupte, Asean head and Citi country officer for Singapore.

The bank said this region is a key growth area for the private banking arm.

Citi Private Bank in South Asia contributes about one-third of Citi's total assets under management (AUMs) in Asia.

In Citi's definition, South Asia covers the markets from India all the way to New Zealand, with Singapore as the hub. AUMs from Citi Private Bank South Asia grew 7 per cent last year, BT reported in April.

The new responsibility will see the 30-year Citi veteran pull together the bank's talent, network and broad product platform to serve clients across South Asia.

In a statement, Mr Gupte said: "The South Asia region possesses outstanding potential due to a fresh wave of entrepreneurship, developing capital markets and an increasingly welcoming environment for family offices. Lung's vast experience and extensive relationships in that region positions us well to fully capture these opportunities."

Mr Lo added: "Lung's experience and knowledge of Citi means he is uniquely suited to offer the full power of the Citi Private Bank franchise to clients in the region."

Throughout his Citi career, Mr Lee has held various senior leadership roles across multiple businesses, functional areas, and geographies, including CEO of Citi Malaysia from 2014 to 2020.

Prior to his stint in Malaysia, he served as the co-head of corporate sales and structuring for markets and securities services, chief operating officer for Singapore, and AML business head of Asia-Pacific.

Earlier this year, Adam Proctor, former Citi private banking head of Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, left the bank to return to the UK "to take on a new challenge". Mr Proctor had said on LinkedIn that with the difficulties of Covid-19, "we feel that we have to be closer to friends and family and use the opportunity to try something new in terms of work".

Citi is putting bigger focus on wealth hubs including Singapore. The Wall Street giant is also exiting from 13 consumer markets, several of which are in Asia-Pacific.

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