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Citigroup plans to hire hundreds of workers in Japan

Citigroup Inc, the largest US bank, plans to hire hundreds of employees in Japan this year to sell investment products to affluent customers, even as it cuts jobs globally after a record loss in the latest quarter.

Citigroup, planning to increase the number of branches in Japan to 50 from 31 now, wants to sell more financial products to individuals with ?10 million (US$93,000) or more in savings through its so-called Citigold program, the head of the firm's local retail banking unit said.

"Over the last six to seven months we increased our Citigold sales force by 60 percent," Fabio Fontainha said in an interview with Bloomberg Television last Wednesday, declining to provide exact numbers. "We'll keep investing in hiring, it's planned to be in the hundreds."

Citigroup, which bought Japan's third-largest brokerage last year, will be competing with HSBC Holdings Plc and UBS AG who are also opening new branches to win a bigger share of the US$14 trillion of financial assets held by Japanese households.

The US bank said last month it will cut at least 4,200 jobs after writing down US$18.1 billion of subprime-related investments.

"Foreign banks need a good reputation to win customers in Japan as they don't have large branch networks," said Junsuke Senoguchi, a Tokyo-based analyst at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. "Profits from the affluent customers targeted are also likely to remain fairly low."

Citigroup opened its first Japanese branch in Yokohama in 1902, and had 1,655 employees as of Sept. 30 last year, according to its Web site.
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