Citi woos the urban middle class

Citibank is targeting the urban upper middle class to leverage its consumer banking segment.

The bank defines customers with an annual package of Rs3-15 lakh as “emerging affluent” and is offering them a new service proposition called ‘Citibanking’. 

“With this launch, we have personalised and customised offerings for our customers across the wealth continuum — starting with salaried accounts (Suvidha), the newly defined emerging affluent (Citibanking) , the affluent (Citigold) , the high net-worth individuals (Citigold Select) and the ultra high net-worth individuals (Citi Private Bank),” said Anand Selva, country business manager, global consumer group, Citi India.

According to estimates, this customer base is largely urban, tech-savvy and uses a host of services other than the traditional banking tools.

Customers under this umbrella constitute 37% of the population in the top 14 cities in India and the segment is an opportunity worth Rs25,000 crore as of now, Citibank said.

The “emerging affluent” segment constitutes of 16 million households in the top cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nagpur, Surat, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh and Kochi, according to McKinsey India.

This segment mainly includes salaried professionals and even 35-40% of self-employed individuals.

Citibank offers these customers financial planning and advice, specialised credit and debit cards with added benefits, better phone-banking services, completely free transactions on national and international ATMs and the likes.

For the service, a customer is required to maintain a relationship value of a minimum Rs2 lakh with the bank, including deposits, insurance or other products.

Citibank is present across 30 cities through 42 full-service branches, supported by a network of over 700 ATMs and claims a market share of more than 20% in credit card spends in India.