Axis Bank would acquire Citibank’s consumer business for about $2 billion through milestone-linked payments. Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank had also submitted their bids to buy Citi’s retail business in India.
Citibank’s business in India includes credit cards, home loans, retail banking. It has 3600 employees working in 35 branches across the country. Incidentally, it is also the first bank to introduce credit cards in India.
According to Reserve Bank of India data, by 31 March 2021, Citi Bank had loans amounting to Rs.68,747 crores and deposits of Rs.1.66 trillion. And as of February, Citibank had 2.6 million credit cardholders.
However, Citibank will ensure that customers are serviced and the transition is seamless during the integration period.
In April 2021, Citigroup announced that it would be exiting consumer businesses in 13 countries, including India, for strategic reasons. Instead, the banking giant aims to refocus on lucrative institutional and wealth management businesses with the greatest scale and growth potential.
Other countries from where Citibank is exiting are Australia, Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.