이 기사는 2022년 05월 24일 08:01 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Citigroup’s Korean unit Citibank Korea, which will phase out from retail banking in Korea, has completed its restructuring.

The Korean unit of U.S. banking giant Citigroup downsized its organization from 25 divisions under three groups from 30 divisions under three groups, according to industry sources. Its consumer banking group now consists of four divisions from nine divisions, including risk division, consumer credit risk division, wealth management division and credit division.

The corporate banking division will continue to have six divisions including top tier local corporate division, financial institutions group division, treasury and trade solutions division, commercial banking business division, commercial banking sales support division and markets division.

The corporate banking group is led by executive vice president Kim Kyoung-ho, who was appointed to spearhead the group in February 2021. Kim oversees sales for domestic conglomerates, state-owned enterprises and multinational companies.

Executive vice president Valentin Valderrabano is leading the consumer banking group. He became the head of the group in 2019.

The latest restructuring is part of Citigroup’s plan to exit consumer banking in 13 countries including Korea.

Net profits of Citibank Korea’s consumer banking business have decreased sharply each year. Its net profit decreased from 72.1 billion won ($57 million) in 2018 to 36.5 billion won in 2019 and 14.8 billion won in 2020. Its return on equity was the lowest at 1.33% in 2013 before it rebounded to 4.71% in 2018. It fell again to 2.95% in the first quarter of this year.

Since the bank announced the voluntary retirement scheme after the decision to close its retail service, it has approved applications of about 2,100 employees to leave the company, which brought the number of its employees to 1,400 as of the end of April from 3,500 in 2020. (Reporting by Seo-bin Park)