Clients are looking for new venues to trade amid Ukraine war, says Citibank CEO

• Citibank is looking to sell off its commercial banking operations in Russia

Citigroup (NYSE: CITI) CEO Jane Fraser said that the bank’s international clients have been looking for ways to conduct trade and finance, as the Western countries continue to levy heavy sanctions on Russia.

Fraser spoke to Bloomberg Television at the Milken Institute Global Conference. She talked about her clients in the Middle East, and said, "You hear the clients there talk about the fact that they don't trust the western financial order to put all of their eggs in that basket going forward, that they are going to be looking at other places."

“You have to anticipate the splintering of the old global financial order, the acceleration of new venues,” she added.

Sell off

Fraser said that the bank is in an “active dialog” with potential buyers of its consumer and commercial banking operations in Russia.

Citigroup announced last year that it would seek to exit retail banking operations in 13 markets across Europe and Asia, and later said it would also seek to dispose of those operations in Mexico. 

Now, the bank has just four remaining markets in which it’s seeking buyers: Russia, Poland, China, and Mexico.

Source - Bloomberg

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