Citigroup plans to hire as many as 100 bankers in a renewed push into Asia-Pacific commercial banking, following in rival HSBC's footsteps with a strategy that focuses on selling smaller corporate clients a wider range of products. Global banks like Citi and HSBC are now concentrating on small to medium-sized clients due to a dwindling number of $10 billion-plus IPOs from Chinese state-owned companies - deals which had sustained investment banks in the region over the last decade. The increase in headcount, which represents a 10 per cent boost for Citi's Asia-Pacific commercial banking unit, is aimed at offering firms with annual sales of between $10 million and $500 million additional services such as foreign exchange and cash management.

Read the Economic Times news report here.