The Most Powerful Women in Banking: No. 20, Tasnim Ghiawadwala, Citigroup

As global head of Citigroup's commercial bank, Tasnim Ghiawadwala's job is to develop and execute a growth strategy for global commercial banking — a business that has a lot of growth potential.

"It's not often that you get the mandate to really drive growth in a business area where Citi has a relatively small market share — 2% or a little less," she said. "My ambition is to double that."

Ghiawadwala's current job is part of her second stint at the New York banking giant. She first joined Citi in 1997, back when it was known as Solomon Brothers. She spent seven years in investment banking, another seven years in a variety of management roles, and seven more years as the commercial bank's head of operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2018, she left for Barclays, where she spent three years as the U.K. head of its corporate bank. She returned to Citi in 2021.

To realize the growth Ghiawadwala envisions, the commercial bank is expanding its operations in North America, the United Kingdom, China and India. It has also identified new markets where Citi is active, but the commercial bank is not. Commercial banking launched in Germany in 2022, in France last year and in Japan in June.

In both new and existing markets, Citi targets potential clients who are already global or have global aspirations. Clients' annual global sales range from $10 million to $3 billion.

In positioning Citi as a core banking provider to international clients, Ghiawadwala said she focused on two things. First, she made sure that the global platform was available to clients in the countries where they want to do business. Clients might need to pay staff, collect money from customers, pay suppliers, handle foreign currency exchange or take out loans.

"When I onboard a U.S. client and they say to me, 'Please help me at home but also in Kenya or Vietnam,' we had to make sure that we are fully connected through the global network to provide services in multiple places," she said.

Second, she has ensured that the capabilities Citi built for enormous customers are available to all its commercial banking clients.

"If all you want from us is a loan, we're probably not the right bank for you," Ghiawadwala said. "It's like using a Maserati to just drive to the grocery store at 30 miles per hour and home again. The car will do that, but there's so much more that you're not tapping."

That said, there's a big difference between the world's largest companies and those that are a tier or two below them — Citi's tools need to work for all of them.

When those tools are used well, Ghiawadwala said that she sees clients grow. That's at least in part because Citi has taken away the pain of cross-border operations.

Ghiawadwala points to a Swiss company with around $1 billion in annual sales. It's a conservatively run, family-owned company that operates in at least 50 countries.

"They have relationships with 72 banks," she said. "The banks serve them really well, but can you imagine the resources involved in dealing with 72 banks?"

While 72 is an unusually large number of banking relationships, Ghiawadwala said her group regularly sees companies with 10 to 20. The intricacies of managing those relationships cuts into time and energy that firms could spend in more productive ways. Citi can offer clients an information dashboard, including multiple banking relationships, so it can see its entire financial picture in one place.

"It's very easy for us to onboard a client like that, because they immediately see the possibilities," Ghiawadwala said. "There are thousands of companies just like this that are traditionally banked in multiple geographies. They've got fantastic business models and are completely creditworthy. Bring them something innovative and immediately their interest is sparked."

Once a commercial banking relationship is established, Citi builds on that connection. It introduces the possibility of personal wealth management and advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, succession planning and potential public offerings.

Ghiawadwala's group is also creating industry-specific solutions. They start with a solution for one or two clients, reasoning that if one company in an industry needs a feature, others probably do, too. "We tailor as needed. The bankers get comfortable with the solutions and can replicate them, so we're not creating the wheel each time for each client," she says.

Geographical expertise is another focus. Ghiawadwala recently talked to a Brazilian agricultural company that was thinking of expanding operations into Africa, which adds complexity with its multiple countries and their different rules.

"We linked them up with bankers who could explain what it means to operate in their countries — regulations, taxation," she said. "They would have learned those things eventually, but Citi made it easy and quick. Clients get access to advice that's local to wherever they're talking about."