| Citibank Korea CEO Yoo Myung-soon / Korea Times |
By Lee Kyung-min
There is mounting speculation over Citibank Korea being sold off following reports claiming that the new CEO of the lender's head office in the U.S. is considering slimming down its global consumer banking operations. New Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser is known for her focus on retail banking and credit card operations when she managed the firm's business in Latin America.
Such prospects could test the leadership and business acumen of Citibank Korea's new CEO, Yoo Myung-soon, whose priorities are "maximizing differentiating qualities" from competitors to become a market leader.
Also pressuring Yoo, who began her three-year term in October 2020, is the lender's lackluster earnings performance over the past few months. Citibank Korea saw its net profit during the first nine months of last year decline 38 percent year-on-year to 161.1 billion won ($145.5 million).
"As our incoming CEO Jane Fraser said in January, we are undertaking a dispassionate and thorough review of our strategy, including our mix of businesses and how they fit together. As you would expect, many different options are being considered and we will take the right amount of time before making any decisions," Citigroup said in a statement provided by Citibank Korea.
"Nothing has been decided, other than the fact that a review is under way at head office," a Citibank Korea official said.
The bank's Korean operations have been classified in the same league as those in Thailand, the Philippines and Australia, which Citibank's headquarters is considering selling off, according to the media reports. Given Fraser's track record of selling off consumer banking units in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia less than a year after she was named head of the group's Latin American business in 2015, there's also a possibility that the bank could sell off its stake in the Korean unit. Citibank's retail banking operations in Argentina were opened in 1914.