In a move to further develop consumer, emerging markets, and multinational corporate banking, Citicorp has given three executives increased responsibilities.
In an internal memorandum dated June 22, John Reed, Citicorp's chairman, said he has named vice chairman Pei-Yuan Chia head of the bank's consumer banking business.
Donald E. Gibson, executive vice president, has been given responsibility for developing emerging markets, and Robert A. McCormack, executive vice president, was put in charge of cross-border, multinational corporate business. The three will report directly to Mr. Reed.
"In each case, the thrust is not to create a new level of management and review, but to provide the overarching leadership to these efforts to deliver on the plans that were outlined," Mr. Reed stated in the memo. "Our objective is to broaden participants and bring together the best functional skills."
As part of the refocusing, Citicorp is also setting up committees for risk management, finance, human resources and performance improvement- technology that will take on some of the responsibilities previously handled by the bank's six-member management committee. The Citicorp memo added that further changes would be announced this month.
Mr. Reed earlier this year told analysts that Citicorp would concentrate on areas where it already has strength: domestic and international retail banking, cross-border corporate banking, and emerging markets.
He ruled out any expansion into investment banking and middle-market banking and said any major acquisitions were also unlikely.
John Morris, a Citicorp spokesman, said the goal of the changes was to achieve some sort of a balance between the management committee's responsibilities for corporate governance and the day-to-day development of business activity.
"There is more to come in the way of people who are going to be moved around" Mr. Morris said. He would not elaborate further other than to say the changes would mainly be related to staffing the new committees and new structure.
Mr. Chia previously held similar, although more limited responsibilities. The 56-year-old Hong Kong-born executive joined the bank as a senior marketing officer in 1974 and assumed reponsibility for global consumer businesses in 1992.
Mr. Gibson, 55, joined Citicorp in 1969 and ran the bank's global finance operations for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Mr. McCormack, 51, joined Citicorp in 1973 and has served as head of North American real estate.
"It would appear as though they are splitting the corporate bank in two," said Raphael Soifer, a bank analyst with Brown Brothers Harriman in New York. But, he said, it was still somewhat unclear as to what the changes implied.
"It clearly reflects a step up for McCormack and Gibson and a changed emphasis at the bank, but beyond that we'll have to wait and see what it means until all the responsibilities are clarified."
David Berry, a banking analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said the changes indicate Citicorp is moving toward a more decentralized structure.
"It's a little less tightly controlled at the center and that clearly reflects increased confidence at the bank," Mr. Berry said.
He added that it also showed Citicorp is getting down to specific tactical issues relating to how it will carry out Mr. Reed's plans.
"There's probably going to be some picking and choosing going on and more selectivity in domestic corporate banking toward niche plays," Mr. Berry predicted.
