Amid US job cut reports, Citi to hire more in India

Meanwhile, a report in the Wall Street Journal today said that the restructuring plan, led by Chief Operating Officer (COO) Robert Druskin, proposes to cut 15,000 jobs in the US. The report said that the cuts might result in a charge of more than $1 billion against earnings. “I have read that. I have no comments,” Prince said.

He said his aim was to increase the share of international business in Citigroup’s total revenue to 60 per cent from the present 45 per cent. “I would expect our international business would grow faster than some of our other businesses. But we don’t target one business for another to grow more or less,” he said.

Prince, however, indicated that some back-office work would move to India, where Citigroup already operates large call centre facilities, a practice that most Western companies have followed in recent years to cut costs.

“We have tended to expand our back-office activities in India as a benefit to the rest of the world,” he said. “I think you will see us continue to consolidate and simplify our back-offices around the world. Traditionally, India has been a beneficiary of that process.” Citigroup also plans to open more branches and expand its operations in India, especially in such areas as microfinance, Prince said.

“We have been increasing our headcount right along in India. That will continue,” he said. The bank added nearly 4,000 staff in India over the past year, taking its headcount here to 22,000. It employs about 327,000 people worldwide. The company’s clientele in India includes about 1,000 large corporates, more than 22,000 small and medium enterprises and 5.5 million retail customers.