WASHINGTON: Citibank is planning to sell the consumer banking operations it has run for a century in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia as South America’s three biggest economies suffer a major downturn. The US-based bank said on Friday that its decision was prompted by a desire to allocate resources where it can generate the best returns.
The decision to eliminate its services affects depositors in more than 50 cities in the three countries. The slowing of China’s economy has plunged all three into an economic down spiral with Brazil, the region’s biggest economy, struggling to emerge from its deepest recession since the 1930s.
Citibank in 1914 opened its first foreign branch in Argentina, when the country rivalled Canada as an emerging agricultural powerhouse. Citibank said it would still continue servicing corporate clients in the three countries.
