UAE: Citi sees strong growth in the new client base

Citi bank recorded strong deposit growth in the UAE, primarily helped by new clients and Net New Money, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Venkat Mahadevan, Head of Consumer Business and Retail Wealth Management for the UAE at Citi, said the bank's retail growth has been excellent in the post-pandemic period.

While speaking on the sidelines of the Innovate, Inspire and Influence (i3) conference held in Dubai on Wednesday, he revealed that the bank has identified Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE and the UK as key four wealth hubs, highlighting that the UAE as a country is increasingly emerging as a global hub.

Organised by Khaleej Times, the one-day i3 conference was attended by many diplomats, think-tankers, and senior officials from the banking, retail and IT industries.

"We have been able to grow quite well in the post-pandemic period. We are growing by the number of clients both in retail business and wealth management. The credit card business has seen very good progress because the economic environment is helping us as well," he said, adding that retail sales have come up quite significantly as people have started travelling more and the usage of credit cards is growing.

"The credit card usage has gone up. We have seen retail spending going up by over 20 per cent in the post-pandemic period because UAE managed the Covid-19 quite well and came out very well," he said.

Mahadevan added that wealth management has performed very well for the global bank's local operation on the back of an increased client base. "We are adding qualified clients at CAGR of about 23 per cent."

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