Citi names Paul Favila as new Philippines country head, CEO

MANILA, Philippines — American banking giant Citigroup has named veteran banker Paul Favila as the CEO and country head for the Philippines, replacing Aftab Ahmed who was assigned to Taiwan in January.

“I am deeply honored by the trust placed on me by Citi. We are excited by the economic opportunities that abound in this country and will continue to focus on enabling growth and progress in the Philippines. As we have done in our past 120 years, we will bring the full power of Citi’s global network in delivering excellent service to our clients. I look forward to leading our 7,000 strong franchise into the next era of global business,” Favila said.

He is currently head of Markets, in charge of Citi’s FX, Rates, Commodities, and Structured Solutions businesses in the Philippines, and country treasurer.

The veteran banker joined Citibank in 1993 as assistant portfolio manager for Citibank Global Asset Management and then assumed various roles in Citi Markets ranging from Fixed Income Sales, Equity Derivatives Sales and Structuring and FXLM Trading.

Prior to assuming responsibility for Citibank Manila’s trading business in 2004, Favila was part of the first batch of the Citibank Asian Tiger Program. As part of the program, he spent time in Singapore and Malaysia dealing rooms, before heading back to Manila to assume leadership of the trading business, which he ran for 10 years up to 2014.

He had responsibility for the country’s Securities Services business up until 2021.

Favila holds prominent positions in various industry bodies and associations such as the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) and the Money Market Association of the Philippines (MART) where he has contributed significantly to efforts in developing the local markets.

Favila will be responsible for all Citi businesses across the franchise in the Philippines and will report to Citi South Asia and ASEAN head Amol Gupte.

“Citi just celebrated a historic 120 years in the Philippines. We remain to be the largest foreign bank in the country in terms of asset base. We have thriving institutional businesses in Banking, Markets and Services and our Citi Solutions Center, which provides voice and non-voice services to Citi affiliates, subsidiaries, and branches around the globe. We are excited to see how Paul’s leadership will help take the franchise forward,” Gupte said.

The last Filipino country head of Citi was the late Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Rafael Buenaventura more than 35 years ago.

The country head role of Citi has expanded significantly over the years and Favila is the first Filipino CEO to oversee the institutional businesses and the bank’s growing service center operations.

Citi Philippines banks over 950 multinational companies and over 100 top local corporates. It is the sole settlement bank for the Philippine Domestic Dollar Transfer System for the past 28 years, handling $3.73-billion worth of transactions daily.