Citi Private Bank

Company Profile

Citi Private Bank serves wealthy individuals and their families – as well as their family offices, foundations and businesses – all over the world, offering investment solutions, trust and wealth planning, alternative investments, institutional execution, and specialist lending and financing.

As part of Citigroup, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, the private bank has access to a network spanning nearly 160 countries and jurisdictions across six continents. Citigroup, the third largest banking institution in the US, serves over 100 million consumers and an institutional client base of around 13,000. 

Private bank clients come from nearly 100 countries and include UHNW individuals (entrepreneurs, business leaders and executives, and their heirs and families); family offices; professional investors such as PE and hedge fund principals, portfolio managers and financial executives; lawyers and law firms; and professionals such as accountants, consultants and asset managers.

History

City Bank of New York, the predecessor to Citi, was founded in New York in 1812, with Samuel Osgood the first president of the company. It was renamed National City Bank of New York in 1865 and had become the largest bank in the US by 1895.

The bank entered South America in 1914, Europe in 1915 and by 1919, it had acquired US overseas bank International Banking Corporation, which had a strong presence in Asia; this helped it to become the first US bank to achieve $1 billion in assets.

Through mergers in the 1920s – including that of the Commercial Exchange Bank and Second National Bank – the bank expanded its retail offering and became the first major US bank to offer compound interest on savings and unsecured personal loans. The bank merged with First National Bank of New York in 1955, becoming the First National City Bank of New York.

In 1967, First National City Bank was reorganised to create a holding company called First National City Corporation. Also in the sixties and seventies, the bank established its first overseas trust business in the Bahamas, and formed its specialist law firm group and art advisory and finance business. 

In 1974, under the leadership of CEO Walter B Wriston, First National City Corporation changed its formal name to Citicorp, with First National City Bank being formally renamed Citibank in 1976.

Wriston also formed the bank’s international services division, which provided financial planning to wealthy individuals. In 1986 this division was transformed into the private banking group, and refocused away from brokerage towards private banking.

In 1998, Citicorp merged with Travelers Group in a $140 billion deal, forming Citigroup. The combined organisation comprised three segments: consumer businesses; corporate and investment banking; and private banking and asset management. In the early 2000s Citigroup acquired Associates First Capital Corporation, European American Bank and Banamex. 

Citigroup was exposed to the subprime mortgage crisis, and in 2007 underwent a restructuring. Citi received $25 billion as part of the US government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October 2008 and an additional $20 billion in November 2008. Citi also entered into a loss-sharing programme with the US Treasury on $300 billion of loans and securities. The bank returned to profitability in 2010, and passed the US’s Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review stress tests in 2015 and 2016.

In 2009 Citi merged Smith Barney, which provided brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals, with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management; it sold its remaining stake in 2013.

The bank spun off its hedge fund unit in 2013, creating Napier Park Global Capital, and exited consumer banking in 11 markets in 2014. In 2015 it sold its margin foreign exchange businesses, including CitiFX Pro and TradeStream, to FXCM and SAXO Bank, and in 2016 sold its retail and commercial banking operations in Panama and Costa Rica. 

In 2021 and 2022, Citi announced it would exit its consumer banking operations in 14 markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Mexico in an effort to streamline operations and focus on its wealth business. In 2021 it merged its wealth management teams in its global consumer banking and institutional clients groups to create Citi Global Wealth, which includes Citi Private Bank and Citi Personal Wealth Management.

Senior leadership

Citigroup CEO: Jane Fraser

Global Head of Citi Private Bank: Ida Liu

North America Head of Citi Private Bank: Halé Behzadi

Asia Pacific Head of Citi Private Bank: Steven Lo

Head of Capital Markets, Citi Global Wealth Investments: Iain Armitage

Head of Private Banking, Europe, Middle East & Africa: James Holder

Head of Trust & Wealth Planning: Rob Laughlin

Private client services

Investment advisory and management

Serving UHNW clients around the world, Citi Private Bank has a close partnership with Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, meaning private banking clients can access many of the same resources and services as institutional investors. Services include:

• Discretionary investment management: global and regional-focused equity, fixed income, multi-asset class investment strategies – core, opportunistic and thematic strategies.
• Alternative investments: allocated in core or opportunistic portfolios to private equity, real estate and hedge funds; these include single-manager funds, fund-of-funds, custom portfolios, investment clubs, co-investment deals and separately managed accounts.
• Institutional capital markets execution covering equities, commodities, fixed income, foreign exchange, rates and hybrids, including direct contact with Citi’s trading desks, electronic trading access and pricing from across markets.
• Sustainable investing via socially responsible investing (including ethical investing), ESG integration, thematic investing and impact investing.
• Direct private investments: via venture capital, growth equity, real estate, buyout, private credit and distressed opportunities.

Private banking and wealth management

Citi Private Bank offers a wide range of banking products and wealth management services, including those that meet cross-border needs:

• Flexible private bank deposit accounts – domestic and international – including foreign currency transactions.
• Philanthropic advice and services to families, foundations, and endowments, including around statutory and best practice compliance for donor-advised funds, private foundations and charitable remained trusts.
• Business succession and intergenerational planning to increase the next generation’s knowledge and awareness in areas such as family governance and legacy, finance and wealth management. 
• Trust and wealth planning. Wealth planners are located in leading financial centers around the world, with trust services delivered from the Bahamas, Jersey, Singapore, Switzerland and the US (Delaware, New York and South Dakota). Custom trust structures can include business interests, real estate, collections of art and other possessions, aircraft and superyachts. 
• Margin lending: securities-backed lending to borrow against a client’s portfolio; collateral can include cash and cash equivalents, equities and bonds, exchange traded REIT shares, mutual funds and ETFs, Citi-distributed structured notes, and hedge funds.

Family office advisory

The multi-disciplinary team combines experience in capital markets, investment banking, portfolio investments, wealth structuring and family offices design and management. It can facilitate direct private investments; trading and execution services; hedging and financing for illiquid or concentrated assets; acquisition and disposal strategies for large, concentrated or illiquid public and private assets; and institutional-level portfolio analytics, actionable strategies and best practices for family offices.

Specialist financing

• Art advisory and finance: developing an acquisition strategy and enabling borrowing against paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs, creating liquidity in order to add to a collection or for other investment purposes.
• Home financing: including fixed and adjustable rate mortgages, interest-only options, dual-collateral mortgages, blanket mortgages, laddered loans and bridge financing. Citi also can assist in complex financial situations, including where there are multiple sources of income or alternative ownership structures, and with unique properties such as vineyards, country estates, farms and ranches.
• Aircraft financing: tailored financing strategies to finance a private aircraft, upgrade an existing aircraft or free up an aircraft’s equity for other purposes.

Locations

Citi Private Bank has more than 60 offices in over 20 countries worldwide.