Citi in Asia-Pac commercial banking push

[HONG KONG] Citigroup plans to hire as many as 100 bankers in a renewed push into Asia-Pacific commercial banking, following in rival HSBC's footsteps with a strategy that focuses on selling smaller corporate clients a wider range of products.

Global banks like Citi and HSBC are now concentrating on small to medium-sized clients due to a dwindling number of US$10 billion-plus IPOs from Chinese state-owned companies - deals which had sustained investment banks in the region over the last decade.

The increase in headcount, which represents a 10 per cent boost for Citi's Asia-Pacific commercial banking unit, is aimed at offering firms with annual sales of between US$10 million and US$500 million additional services such as foreign exchange and cash management. "This is not about adding hundreds of new clients in the region, but winning more wallet share from commercial banking clients who have cross-border business by providing them with more loans, FX, cash and trade products," Citi's Asia-Pacific commercial banking head Ashish Bajaj said in an intervie…