Citibank is Closing its Commercial Operations in Pakistan

After RBS and HSBC, its the Citibank which is closing its commercial operations from Pakistan despite having net income jump of 391% and having Rs70 billion in deposits and a total asset book of about Rs96.4 billion ($1.4 billion).

 Citigroups Citibank shuttered its equity research office in Karachi, Pakistans financial capital, in March, followed by Credit Suisse Group which closed its research operations earlier this year and JPMorgan Chase which suspended its brokerage operations in 2008, also in Karachi.

 Credit Suisse has closed its research division but still covering Karachi-based companies from Singapore and JPMorgan has still retained its seat on the exchange but is not active in the country.

 In 1990s Citibank has innovated commercial market operations in Pakistan by introducing several new products such Credit Cards, Online Shopping, Mortgage and Auto Finance. But it appears now that it has lost its interest in consumer banking and Standard Chartered Bank is the only large foreign bank still has huge interest in Pakistan.

It is worth mentioning that British Petroleum has also closed its operations in Pakistan recently.

 Most of the depositors to Citi Bank are large corporations and multinationals.