citi bank history
Citi’s Indian ship is mapping an exit route. The slowdown in its card business began around 2014-15, with increased competition from banks such as HDFC and the emergence of local fintech players such as Paytm*. Citi needed a tech upgrade and a more localised operational focus—a market-specific approach rather than a broad one. Citi had gone up to 11% market share of the Indian CC market but competitive landscape changed it all
Citi was managing remotely from Singapore. Conflicts between mum and sgp.
Premium banking services was what Amex and citi always tried to acquire.
premium sector requires its own entourage like advantages.
HSBC struck the middle ground with mix of corporate and consumer banking
SBI, HDFC, ICICI etc had an image problem wrt premium banking. A HNI will never go for SBI
advantage of premium consumer base.
- consumers pay on time
cons of premium consumer base
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lower spread over interest
a good bank has a mix of mass and premium consumer base in its books
Amex and Citi set themselves apart with good customer service, grievance addressal, and support. Qualified hiring. Indian banks lagged here.
Every bank has tried to enter the premium segment by providing higher tier services and acquire the premium consumer base. The cost of hiring high paid customer service reflects in their pace of acquiring new consumers and selling more cards. This difference in bottom line costs means citi is unable to invest much in sourcing cards.