India to have second-largest number of Citi employees: CEO Balasubramanian

Citi India CEO K Balasubramanian.

Citi's India unit could soon become the bank's second-largest employer globally, driven by its domestic global capability centres (GCCs) and the potential divestment of Banamex, K  Balasubramanian, Citi’s CEO for India subcontinent sub-cluster and banking head, has told Moneycontrol.

Banamex is a Mexican retail bank owned by Citi.

Citi’s AI thrust

“We have CSC or Citi Service Center where 33,000 people are working and we are an early player into the GCC space,” Balasubramanian said. Citi’s GCC in India dates to 1990 and operates in Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru and Mumbai. These offices support Citi’s global operations in more than 80 countries.

“There are several colleagues who have created their own patent on artificial intelligence (AI). Close to 50 percent of our people at GCCs are doing high-tech stuff, including big data and analytics, which will be futuristic in nature,” Balasubramanian said. “There is a lot of work on AI and ML (machine learning), not only for India business, but across the world.”

GCCs are offshore offices set up by multinational corporations (MNCs) to perform high-value, strategic functions that go beyond traditional outsourcing.

Improving processes

GCCs in India are tasked with a specific mission – that of improving global business processes. “Citi’s chief technology officer was in India two weeks back. We spoke about how we’ve identified four business lines where critical, unstructured processes have been identified that is being followed today, at times would also be touching clients,” Balasubramanian said.

The objective was to see how AI can help in streamlining and removing some manual processes to improve Citi’s product and solutions.

Asked if the focus on AI is aiding in cost reductions, Balasubramanian said CEO Jane Fraser is driving the bank's artificial intelligence mission through her executive management team.

“Every EMT member has been tasked to identify the top five problem areas where they believe AI can be used in a significant manner to roll it more from an efficiency perspective as well as getting more business and faster access to clients,” he said.

Critical workforce base

With India’s GCCs at the core of AI related transformation, Balasubramanian is confident that India will soon become the second largest employee base for Citi after the United States.

Citi is in the process of divesting Banamex, its retail banking outfit in Mexico, which is expected to crystalise sometime in 2026, India would have the second largest employee base after the United States. “We are still adding more people and that shows the relative importance of India compared to other markets within Citi,” Balasubramanian said. Mexico has the second largest Citi workforce outside the United States.