CitiSavings Bank to open 14 branches

MANILA, Philippines - CitiSavings Bank, the domestic thrift banking arm of financial giant Citi, is planning to open 14 new branches this year, a top bank official said.

CitiSavings presently operates 22 branches with another 14 branch licenses.

“We want to open them within the next four weeks, and most of them will be located in Metro Manila,” Sanjiv Vohra, Citi Philippines country head, said in a briefing yesterday.

CitiSavings is the offshoot of Citi’s acquisition of Insular Savings Bank, then the thrift banking arm of the Insular Life Group of Companies. Likewise, Citi merged the operations of the thrift bank and its former business centers known as Citifinancial business centers.

Citi, the commercial bank, operates the allowable six branches, including head offices, for foreign banks.

The thrift bank allows the foreign bank to introduce its consumer banking products to the affluent banking public or the middle market to the high-value market.

It will be launching Citigold, its wealth management product, at its Ermita branch. Vohra said they would undertake similar launching within the year, as it opens its new branches.

Its aggressive expansion in its branch network is based on its belief that the Philippine economy, as well as the emerging Asia Pacific region, will be leading the recovery of the global economic recovery.

Citi is forecasting that the global economy will expand 3.3 percent in 2010, after likely contracting 2.1 percent last year.

“Globally, inflation will be muted with a few spikes,” Haren Shah, Citi director and senior investment strategist for Asia Pacific, said in a presentation.

The emerging markets, especially Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), are expected to lead the march to global economic recovery. Expected to lag behind are Europe and Japan.