Global banking major Citigroup expects majority of its businesses to come from emerging markets including Asia, its chief executive Vikram Pandit has said.
Speaking to British daily Financial Times, India-born Pandit said Citi is set to glean majority of its business from emerging markets with Asian and Latin American consumers as well as trade between those regions and Africa driving growth.
Citi has good presence in India.
According to Pandit, Citi took nearly 50% of its business from emerging markets and that their business is doing well as Asia's growth was intact despite the slowdown in China.
Emergence of new corporate champions outside the developed world and their trade and investment in other emerging markets is likely to help the bank. This will see the share of its business from emerging markets increase from near 50%, where it stands currently, to become the majority, he added.
"When you look at our business, the biggest growth trend is in our ability and our requirement to serve those emerging-market multinationals in the way we used to serve and continue to serve some of the developed-market multinationals," Pandit said.
The report said Citi likes to point out that in some periods, such as the recent second quarter, profits in Asia alone have outstripped the global earnings of pure investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
{{/usCountry}}The report said Citi likes to point out that in some periods, such as the recent second quarter, profits in Asia alone have outstripped the global earnings of pure investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Pandit dismissed the idea that big banks need to be split.
As per the daily, Pandit has "knocked back the idea of big banks being split up after calls from people such as his predecessor Sandy Weill".
In the wake of ravaging 2008 financial meltdown, the financial services sector has attracted lot of criticism for their excessive risk taking ways and calls for splitting big entities have become stronger.
Pandit said the Financial Times that Citi, formed with mergers such as the acquisition of Travelers in 1998, had already gone back to the basics of banking.
"What's left here is essentially the old Citicorp," he said.
Under Pandit, the bank has been pushing through the sale of $600 billion in assets and 60 different businesses, the daily said.
Recently, Citi's former chairman and CEO Sanford Weill had said that big American banks should break up to save tax payers' money.