NAB to buy Citi Australia’s consumer business

Citi today announced it has reached an agreement with National Australia Bank Limited (hereafter “NAB“) for the acquisition of Citi’s consumer bank in Australia. Citi’s Australian Consumer Bank, which includes residential mortgages (c.A$7.9bn), deposits (c.A$9.0bn) and unsecured lending (c.A$4.3bn) will be transferred to NAB, together with approximately 800 Citi employees upon close of the transaction.

Jane Fraser, Citi CEO, said, “This is a positive outcome for our clients, our colleagues and for Citi. As this transaction shows, we are moving forward with urgency as we refresh our strategy and execute the decisions we have already made as part of that effort. We are focusing our resources on businesses where we have scale and competitive advantages in order to deliver growth and improved returns over time.

“In addition to serving our Wealth clients through four global hubs, we will continue to serve our institutional clients in Australia, as we have for nearly a century, and across the greater Asia Pacific region. We are very pleased with the economics of the transaction and we will use the capital generated to invest in our strategic priorities, as well as to continue to return capital to our shareholders,” Fraser concluded.

Citi Australia’s institutional business provides a comprehensive range of investment and banking services to approximately 1500 corporates, banks, governments and institutional investors in Australia, as well as clients offshore. Services include capital markets and corporate advisory, markets and securities services, commercial banking and treasury and trade solutions.

NAB was selected following an auction process to acquire Citi’s consumer business, which includes credit cards, loans, retail banking, mortgages and wealth management solutions for high net worth individuals. The bank is also a credit card provider for some of Australia’s leading brands including BOQ, Coles, Kogan, PayPal, Qantas, Suncorp and Virgin Money.

There is no immediate change to the way Citi serves its consumer banking and wealth customers. Customers will be contacted in the coming months with more details.

Subject to the timing of regulatory approvals, completion is expected to occur by March 2022.