Citi for organic growth in India: Global CEO

Prince said Citigroup had the patience to go by the regulations of the Reserve Banmk of India. As of now, foreign banks are not allowed to take over local banks. However, the RBI has come out with a road map for listing and takeovers by foreign banks by 2009.

Speaking on India as an investment destination, Prince said ample opportunities exist in India and Citigroup is positive about Indian growth prospects and the group is retaining all their earning from the country as investment. He also stated there has been fresh capital infusion in the bank’s India operations time to time as per the requirements.

“Currently 60:40 is ratio of Citigroup’s earning from US vis-a-vis other global destination and we want it to be 50:50 in the next five years.

Markets in Asia are likely to grow rapidly when compared to Europe and Latin America,” Prince said.

Citigroup has $10 billion in assets and 15,000 employees in India, including outsourcing unit E-Serve and a finance company Citicorp Finance Ltd through which it funds retail loans.

Though Asia would continue to outperform other markets, he warned of a global liquidity bubble that had inflated all asset values. “Money is chasing all kinds of assets because there’s too much money, too much liquidity,” he said. “It’s not a matter of what smart money is chasing, it’s just everything is being chased.”

Prince also dedicated the Citigroup Centre for Financial Literacy to the Indian School of Microfinance for Women (ISMW) in Mumbai. The Ahmedabad-based school — a partnership between Sewa Bank and Friends of Women’s World Banking and Coady International Institute of Canada — is the world’s first educational institution to focus solely on the discipline of microfinance.