Citigroup is consolidating two wealth management units into a single global division that will be led by veteran banker Jim O’Donnell.
Citi Global Wealth is being formed by combining Citi Private Bank, which is housed in the firm’s institutional clients group, with Citi Personal Wealth Management, which is part of the company’s global consumer bank.
The reorganization will bring wealth-management services for the ultrawealthy under the same umbrella as services that serve substantially less affluent consumers.
“We are going to put the full force of the firm behind this effort to create a single, integrated platform that will serve clients from the affluent level all the way through to ultra-high net worth individuals and households,” Citi CEO Michael Corbat and President and incoming CEO Jane Fraser wrote in an internal memo Wednesday.
Citi Private Bank focuses on customers who have an average net worth of above $100 million. Toward the other end of the spectrum, the Citigold offering in the bank’s consumer bank is open to customers with combined average monthly balances of $200,000 or more in deposit, retirement and investment accounts.
O’Donnell has been with New York-based Citi since 1999. He most recently served as global head of investor sales and relationship management, where he was responsible for the distribution of products to the firm’s equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities clients.
O’Donnell will report to both Anand Selva, the CEO of global consumer banking at Citi, and Paco Ybarra, who leads the bank’s institutional clients group.
“Jim will spend the next few months in his new role developing the strategy and organization design for this new business,” Corbat and Fraser wrote. “Making wealth management a key differentiator and source of enhanced returns for Citi will be an important element of our strategy going forward.”
Peter Charrington, who led Citi Private Bank for six years,
