Citi's CEO went to China with Trump — then Beijing finally approved a deal she'd been championing for years

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Of course, it's unclear if Fraser's beingness connected the travel moved the needle connected this peculiar woody but the timing is hard to ignore. What is wide is that her slope has been waiting for a precise agelong clip for this moment. Citigroup filed its exertion with the China Securities Regulatory Commission successful December 2021 (2); the regulator didn't formally judge it for reappraisal until December 2023, per Caixin Global (3). With this nod, Citi becomes the seventh large overseas slope to afloat ain a Chinese brokerage, joining JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, Mizuho and UBS.

A 124-year handshake with Shanghai

Citi, formerly The International Banking Corporation, opened successful Shanghai successful 1902 (4); locals really called it the "Flower Flag" slope due to the fact that residents saw stars connected the American emblem flying atop the gathering and thought they were flowers. The caller licence fills a spread Citi has been trying to plug since it exited a erstwhile associated task with Orient Securities successful 2019 (5) aft failing to negociate bulk control. China lone scrapped its foreign-ownership headdress connected securities firms successful April 2020 (6), but Citi's rivals moved importantly faster: JPMorgan got support that August and Goldman Sachs got the greenish airy 2 months later.

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Brokerage successful the set of brothers

The timing matters due to the fact that Citi has spent Fraser's tenure shrinking its retail footprint — it sold its onshore user wealthiness portfolio to HSBC successful 2024 (7) — portion doubling down connected organization clients.

Fraser told Bloomberg past twelvemonth (8) the institution wants broader entree to Chinese superior markets to enactment cross-border deals; a wholly owned brokerage lets Citi underwrite banal and enslaved offerings, tally a clearing cognition and transportation home issuers without splitting fees with a section partner.