The possibility of a sale has been rumored since June, when the Economic Times in India first reported that Citi was looking to sell off the unit—which had been one of the first U.S.-owned captive sites for transaction processing based in India—as part of an overseas restructuring effort. The global services unit also handles call center activity, and works across mortgage, retail, cards, capital markets, trade and finance, according to ET.
As part of the agreement, Citi has pledged to maintain processing services at the global services unit for the next five years.
Citi has, of course, been in desperate need of shaving costs, and a sell-off of some operations was expected to meet Citi chairman and CEO Vikram Pandit’s aggressive turnaround strategy, according to a July interview with TowerGroup research director Guillermo Kopp.
An unrelated restructuring of Citi’s Asia pacific operations was announced on Monday, in which Citi announced it would shift primarily responsibility away from product lines and under four regional heads heading all seven product groups in their respective geographic areas.
