Korea Citi Bank's Asset Management 'Soars'... "Strengthening Services with Differentiation Strategy"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Citibank Korea is increasing consumer interest with differentiated wealth management (WM) services.

According to the banking sector on the 23rd, Citibank Korea opened its first dedicated Wealth Management Center (WM Center) in November 2015, and over the past five years, it has opened seven WM Centers nationwide. During this period, the top-tier wealth management customer base grew by 64%, and the size of investment products (AUM) increased by 20%.

Citibank's WM starts with a rigorous investment product launching process. Although there were complaints such as "there are no trendy products that other financial institutions are selling," the bank received praise for its product selection ability following successive poor fund controversies. The newly established Investment Advisory Department at the end of last year also strengthened Citibank's differentiated wealth management services.

The Investment Advisory Department, responsible for Citibank's core WM model portfolio, is composed of a Research Team that provides high-quality research materials utilizing Citi's global network, a Portfolio Counselor Team that reviews portfolios of top-tier clients, a TSO (Treasury Service Officer) Team responsible for foreign exchange investment strategies, and an Investment Product Counselor Team that reviews investment products for Gold clients.

Experts in each field belonging to these teams work together at the WM Centers to support customers' wealth management services. In particular, the Investment Product Counselor system, piloted this year for Citi Gold clients, is planned to be expanded further next year.

Citibank Korea also judged that the social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has increased customers' thirst for investment information more than ever, and thus converted the previously systematically conducted offline customer seminars into online seminars called 'Citi Webinar On Air.'

The online seminars are provided through various channels such as YouTube and Zoom, and customer webinars offered by Citi's Asia regional headquarters were also broadcast live via Facebook and Instagram.

Citibank Korea plans to further diversify its product lineup next year, including alternative investment funds and new capital bonds, to strengthen the portfolios of high-net-worth individuals.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.