Corporate Banking at Citicorp Realigned According to Product and

Extending a corporate restructuring first announced in February, Citicorp has realigned its corporate banking operations along products and industry groups, rather than geographic regions.

The three product groups include global transactions services, headed by James Bailey; capital markets and trading, headed by Ernst Brutsche; and corporate finance and portfolio products, managed by Alan MacDonald.

In February, Citicorp divided the bank into three main areas of activity - global consumer markets, under executive vice chairman Pei-Yuan Chia; emerging markets, under executive vice president Donald E. Gibson; and worldwide corporate banking, under Robert A. McCormack.

Mr. McCormack said the move duplicates an existing operating system for foreign exchange and derivatives. The new structure "provides us with a higher level of risk management and controls," he said.

Alongside the three product groups, six customer industry groups covering broad-ranging businesses such as telecommunications and energy have been set up.

The six groups will be headed by Guenther Greiner, David Van Pelt, Masamoto Yashiro, Stormy Byorum, Nancy Newcomb, and Truett Tate.

"Customers in the same industries tend to have similar needs," Mr. McCormack said. "By organizing relationship management teams on a global basis around industry groups, we believe we will increase the quality of financial solutions we bring to our customers."

John Morris, a spokesman for the bank, noted that all of the changes involved long-standing Citicorp staff. He characterized the reorganization as "slicing the situation a little different in a way we think will be better."

Both Mr. Chia and Mr. Gibson have yet to announce changes they will be making as part of the realignment.

The bank has been steadily expanding its network of offices around the world as part of a drive to build the first truly global bank.

Last week, Citicorp opened a branch in Johannesburg, which it said it would use the office to handle foreign exchange and derivatives, cash management, trade finance, and fund-raising in South African rands and foreign currencies.

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