U.S. private bank seeks to set new service standards for rich South Asians. Citigroup has named Puneet Matta to the new position of “chief officer” for Citigroup India’s private bank. The move comes in response to what the megabank calls the “strong growth momentum” in India’s wealth market.

“Unprecedented levels of wealth creation is expanding the size of the country’s affluent and high net worth market, and underpinning the need for new standards in wealth management,” says Deepak Sharma, CEO of htm Citigroup Global Wealth Management in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions.

Up for grabs

The number of Indians with at least $1 million in net worth grew nearly 15% to around 70,000 in 2004, according to Merrill Lynch’s and Capgemini’s 2005 World Wealth Report. This was the fourth-fastest millionaire growth rate in the world that year.

An earlier study by Datamonitor, a London-based market-research company, shows that the Subcontinent’s overall private-wealth market swelled by 123% to $177 billion in the five years through 2003. Two thirds of that – about $116 billion – was in the hands of 620,000 “mass” affluent and high-net-worth individuals. (By Datamonitor’s measure, India mass-affluent individuals have investable assets of between $50,000 and $299,000; high-net-worth individuals have at least $300,000.) Datamonitor sees this privileged population growing to around 1 million individuals by 2008, by which time their collective assets will have grown to about $200 billion.

Matta will lead Citi’s efforts to tap India’s nascent wealth management market from its private bank’s national headquarters in Mumbai, formerly Bombay. Before stepping into this position, he was head of business development for Citibank’s corporate and investment banking division.

“Puneet and his team will have access to products and capabilities that very few financial institutions can claim to have,” says Sanjay Nayar, CEO for Citi’s Indian operations.

Other plans outlined for the expansion of the wealth management business include setting up offices in cities such as Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Kolkata within the next 12 months.

Ajay Sondhi, head of Citigroup’s wealth-management business in India and several other South Asian markets, says the new initiative is backed by an “unprecedented” investment in Citi's Indian wealth-management business. “We believe that a strong domestic presence is critical in order to capture the wealth-management opportunity India offers.” –FWR

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