Citicorp said Tuesday that it had obtained a license from the central bank of Bangladesh to open a full-service branch in Dacca, the capital.
The new branch will open in June. Citicorp has operated a representative office in the city since 1987, providing offshore correspondent banking services to local banks and advisory services to commercial clients.
The New York-based banking company said it plans to use the branch to offer services to multinational corporations already in Bangladesh as well as to local companies and investors. These services would include trade finance, foreign exchange, cash management, project finance, and custodial services.
However, unlike other banks, Citicorp has been expanding its retail as well as corporate wholesale and investment banking services outside the United States. Other U.S. banks have been more selective, focusing on corporate wholesale banking, investment banking, and private banking services.
Citicorp has opened several offices outside the United States in recent months as part of a drive to expand its network in emerging markets in Africa and Asia, where profit margins tend to be higher than in more mature markets, such as the United States and Europe.
In January, the company converted its representative office in Hanoi to a branch, and late last year, it opened representative offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
A Citicorp spokesman said the bank hopes to convert its South African representative office to a branch by mid-1995.
Citicorp now has the largest presence of any U.S. bank in Africa, with operations in 15 countries, and it is also the largest in Asia, with 260 offices in 25 countries.
