Citi Names Head of Private Bank for South Asia

The Singapore-based Citi veteran will oversee the bank’s global market managers in South Asia and will have direct responsibility for the Singapore and Malaysia markets.

Citi has named Lee Lung Nien as head of its private banking business in South Asia, in addition to his existing role as chairman of Citi Private Bank for South Asia, according to an announcement on Monday.

Lee joined Citi 30 years ago and was CEO of Citi Malaysia from 2014 to 2020. He previously held various other senior roles including co-head of corporate sales and structuring for markets and securities services, chief operating officer for Singapore, and AML (anti-money laundering) business head of Asia Pacific. In his new role, he will report to Steven Lo, Asia Pacific head of Citi Private Bank and Amol Gupte, Asean head and Citi country officer for Singapore.

According to the bank, the South Asia region, which includes Singapore and Malaysia, is a «key growth area» for its private banking business and is critical to the success of the Citi Global Wealth initiative.

The South Asia region possesses outstanding potential due to a fresh wave of entrepreneurship, developing capital markets and an increasingly welcoming environment for family offices, Gupte said.

The South Asia head role was previously held by Jyrki Rauhio, who left in 2020 after 20 years at the bank and later joined HSBC Private Banking as its regional head of credit advisory.