Citigroup names Robert Law Middle East and Africa Region Head of Consumer Banking

This appointment comes at a time when Citibank, a member of Citigroup, has grown at an impressive rate in the region in the past few years owing mainly to a significant realignment & expansion in key distribution channels, including a strong sales team, and ever increasing personal banking offer.

Robert comes to Citigroup from General Electric (GE) where he was Chief Executive Officer of GE Money Bank GmbH Germany, a diverse retail bank comprising retail banking, automotive finance and direct banking headquartered in Hannover. For the past five years, Robert led the business through the purchase and integration of two acquisitions whilst expanding the franchise nationally. Today, GE Money Bank has more than 500,000 customers across Germany.

"The Middle East and Africa region is a high potential growth market for Citibank with huge opportunities in all customer segments, especially in the area of Wealth Management where we bring global, state-of-the-art expertise blended with a strong focus on customization and local knowledge,"

said Mr. Law. "I am excited at the prospect of continuing to develop what is already one of our most important and fast growing regions, thanks to a dedicated team of professionals on the ground and strong support by our clients."

Citigroup has been in the Middle East for nearly 50 years and continues to view the region as a critical part of the Bank's global franchise. It currently offers consumer banking services in the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, and plans to introduce consumer banking services in Kuwait at a later stage.

In the UAE alone, Citibank had a presence for the last 41 years, and it is expanding its major operations in the country, namely in consumer banking. In the last two years, the bank introduced the pioneering 8-8 branch hours, personal loan and auto loan products, Investment as well as Insurance services, and Wealth Management plans.

Citibank is the market leader in credit cards in the UAE. According to Visa International's latest quarterly member bank statistics, Citibank ranked first in number of credit cards in use as well as No. 1 issuing bank in the UAE market for retail spending across all categories of credit cards for the period ending 30 September 2005.