By Francis Chan

US BANKING giant Citi has been hit hard by the financial crisis - but you would hardly know this judging by the success of its Singapore franchise.

Citi Singapore is shrugging off the grim times and going full steam ahead on the back of record profit figures for last year.

It is opening new branches, most resulting from its tie-up with transport giant SMRT Corp, and is on course to open its 21st retail branch by early next month.

The bank is also acting as a government-backed lender to businesses here and is in the midst of finalising its role as an administrator of various business financing schemes.

Key executives from Citi Singapore unveiled some of their plans for this year at a full-year results briefing yesterday, as the bank reported record profits of $703.6 million last year, up by 3 per cent from $683.5 million in 2007.

'We actually saw quite good revenue growth of about 6.4 per cent, which tells you that the franchise is growing,' said Citi Singapore's country head and chief executive, Mr Jonathan Larsen.

For the year ended Dec 31, revenue at Citi Singapore rose to $1.5 billion, up from $1.4 billion.

The bank said its diversified business model managed to help it maintain a 'stable and steady' growth in its operations here, although its parent unit in the United States had seen better days.

Mr Larsen said one of the key drivers behind the success of the local arm of the American banking behemoth was the growth of its retail banking business here.

He said that Citi Singapore's consumer segment continued to register profitability across most of its customer segments and product lines last year.

For example, the bank's unsecured lending portfolio - comprising credit cards and personal lines of credit - grew by 16 per cent, while deposits and treasury activities grew by around 25 per cent.

As a whole, its consumer segment saw a 20 per cent rise in total new customers across product lines and customer segments, due in part to its expanded distribution via its partnership with SMRT and its 'Citibank at Work' programme.

Starting from early last year, Citi Singapore extended its retail banking distribution channels as part of a wider expansion strategy into the heartlands.

It added four new branches, taking its total branch network in Singapore to 20 branches last year. To date, Citi Singapore also has an ATM network of 150 terminals, excluding an additional 85 ATMs located under the ATM5 shared network.

With 8,000 staff, Citi Singapore is currently one of the largest financial sector employers.

It said it will continue to invest in its Singapore franchise and grow its market share in both retail and business banking here.

'Our intent and strategy has been to expand our distribution, and that is clearly not going to change going into this year,' said Citi Singapore's head of consumer markets, Mr Anil Wadhwani.

He said the bank's latest retail banking branch at Holland Village will begin operations by next month, and that negotiations with SMRT are now on-going in regards to expanding its presence through the upcoming Circle Line network.

A key player in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loans space, where Citi Singapore has seen revenue growth of about 20 per cent over the past three years, the bank has now enrolled in the Spring Singapore-led loan programme.

Mr Larsen said: 'We are just finalising the necessary agreements with Spring, and we are almost at the point to issue our first loans in partnership with Spring, so that is something we intend to participate in.'

For the first time, Citi also released the results of two of its other units here: Citibank N.A. Singapore Branch and Citicorp Investment Bank (Singapore).

Both units posted profits of $252.6 million and $248.1 million respectively, taking the total profits of the three Singapore units to a staggering $1.2 billion.

Citibank N.A. Singapore Branch is a fully licensed bank which houses its corporate, commercial and investment banking businesses, transaction services, private banking and trading businesses.

Citicorp Investment Bank is a merchant bank through which Citi books its investment banking and capital markets deals, including debt origination and deal underwriting.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.