Return to UBS tops private banking poll
Citigroup Private Bank
Citigroup Private Bank opened four new offices in the US in 2004, including a 118,000 square foot office on Fifth Avenue in New York. But, says president of the US region Damian Kozlowski (pictured), having a huge network of branches is not part of the bank’s strategy. “In terms of structure, we look more like an investment bank. We have only 20 US offices with 130 US private bankers with almost 1,200 staff supporting them. This isn’t a capacity game – we can’t grow our banker population by more than 20% annually for example. We work best in a narrow client set in the US who are looking for tailored solutions.” That set includes entrepreneurs, real estate investors and developers, private-equity firms and their principals, and law firms – the majority of which tend to have at least $50 million in assets.
“The US is a wealth creation market, and we get involved on that side. Our clients generally have concentrated wealth, which causes liquidity challenges. We provide capital for investment and diversification. We can act as an adviser on a variety of large business deals. Our wealth-creating clients demand the best ideas on both structuring and products and that’s what we attempt to do,” says Kozlowski.
Citigroup Private Bank this year ranks as the number one private bank in the US, number one private bank in the Americas region and number one for best use of technology in the Americas. Kozlowski says: “Over the past five years, we’ve invested heavily in technology and facilities. Clients want information handled and delivered quickly and concisely with analysis, so we’ve created something called the Relationship Report that allows multi-currency reporting and performance analysis of all Citigroup accounts.”
