Citi has announced the departure of Ajay Banga, the US bank’s chief executive officer of Asia Pacific, who is leaving to take up the chief operating officer role at MasterCard at the end of August.

A successor for the CEO role, which includes responsibility for wealth management in addition to institutional banking, alternative investments, consumer banking and credit cards, will be named shortly, Citi said in a statement.

Mr Banga assumed leadership of the Asia Pacific region in 2008, prior to which he served as chief executive of Citi's International Global Consumer Group. His previous roles at Citi also include those of president, Retail Banking North America and business head of CitiFinancial and the US Consumer Assets Division.

"I want to thank Ajay for his leadership and for the significant contributions he has made to building the great global franchise that Citi is today. Our Asia Pacific executive committee and colleagues across the region are to be commended for their extraordinary client focus and success in building a unified Citi in this important part of the world, and we look forward to continuing to build upon that success," said Vikram Pandit, Citi’s chief executive.

There have been a number of significant staff moves at Citi in recent months as the bank is, for example, looking to hire bankers and support staff as part of its plans to form a dedicated HNW service in the EMEA region.

Earlier in June Citi Private Bank appointed David Poole as acting head of the UK market region. Mr Poole, who is currently business development manager for the UK, is taking over part of the role from Peter Charrington, who is moving to the US to run the private bank’s North American business. Back in April, Citi named Jane Fraser as the new chief executive of its private banking unit.