Plans for tripling its staff in China to 12,000 workers over the next three years were announced by Citigroup Inc., intensifying competition with HSBC Holdings Plc, to the largest and fastest growing economy in the world. The U.S. bank will hire more people in China than any other country in the Asia-Pacific region, said Deputy CEO Steven Bird, in an interview on Monday. The expansion is likely to make China Citigroup the third largest company of the country in employee volume.
Citigroup’s CEO Vikram Pantit focuses on China where banks announced new high record of loans valued 1.4 trillion dollars. In contrast with the HSBC and Standard Chartered, Citigroup does not plan to sell shares in China as they will fund the development with funds drawn from Asia. Currently, Citigroup employs 4500 people in China and a total of 50,000 in Asia.
The British bank Standard Chartered, receives more than three quarters of its profits from Asia and currently employs more than 4000 people in China, while HSBC – the largest bank in Europe by market value – has also more than 5,000 employees in the country.
Citigroup already has 29 branches in China and plans to add 10 more this year. HSBC has 102 branches while Standard Chartered has 59.
