Citigroup to boost Asia prime brokerage staff by 10% this year

[HONG KONG] Citigroup plans to increase headcount within its Asia-Pacific prime brokerage unit by about 10 per cent this year, part of a broader push to capture more business from the region’s hedge funds. The expansion centres on Singapore and India, where the bank is hiring across front-office and technology roles to bolster its global platform, according to Sue Lee, Citigroup’s head of markets for Asia South. The regional ramp-up aligns with a global push to grow prime brokerage balances to more than US$700 billion by 2028, a leap from US$450 billion in 2025. While Citigroup has long been strong in rates and fixed income, its equities franchise has remained a laggard compared to Wall Street peers, a gap the bank is now trying to close.

The bank’s prime brokerage business involves lending hedge funds cash and securities to help execute their trades. Citi has been poaching rivals to anchor its leadership team. Last year, Citigroup tapped Goldman Sachs and Millennium Management veteran Jignesh Patel as Asia-Pacific prime finance head. It also recruited Laiman Wong from UBS to lead markets senior relationship management for the region from Hong Kong. Following those hires, the firm is now moving into a secondary phase of recruitment. After hiring key staff in the front office across the region last year, the bank is focused on “filling the gaps”, said Paul Smith, Citigroup’s head of markets for Japan, North Asia, and Australia. US banks have reported strong trading revenues for the first quarter. Rival JPMorgan Chase’s balances within its prime brokerage business soared to a record as clients looked to seize on volatility. Globally, Citigroup’s prime balances were up more than 50 per cent to a record for the first three months. Asia-Pacific contributed to that jump, said Smith, adding that the majority of the growth in the region came from new business from existing and new clients. “Clients continue to onboard multiple prime brokers,” said Smith, adding that the bank has been investing in coverage, balance sheet, as well as its platform. “Hedge fund clients want choices of prime relationships.” The Wall Street bank also saw record client equity flows in China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan during the first quarter, “a lot” of which was AI and tech-themed, Smith said. It’s also seeing strong demand from quants and multi-strategy hedge funds to invest in China’s stock market. While Singapore has long lagged Hong Kong as an equities hub, the authorities are pushing to boost the local stock market and improve trading liquidity, with Singapore Exchange and Nasdaq working together on a new dual listing venue for companies. SGX said that it plans to create a new global listing board that would allow companies with a market capitalisation of at least S$2 billion to raise funds from both the US and Singapore. The board is on track to launch in the middle of this year. According to Lee, there are technology firms in South-east Asia that want to tap that listing board, while global asset managers also want to deploy capital and the bank is helping clients prepare for the opportunity. BLOOMBERG