AS one of the global financial leaders in the country, Citi Malaysia is banking on fresh and young minds to drive the banking industry to greater heights in the future, its chief executive officer Usman Ahmed said.
During his courtesy call on Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow at his office in Komtar today, Usman said with the emergence of digital solutions in this era, the intervention of young and fresh minds will be vital to boost the performance of big guns in the banking industry.
“Now that we have aggressively moved from traditional trade finance to digital solutions, we need more young people to come forward and lead the fronts in this industry.
“We are finding the combination of technology that we have brought in and the traditional experience that we have, as a valuable format to upskill and train new hires in our organisation.
“For instance, we have the ever-growing Citi Solutions Centre here in Penang, which is offering worldwide transaction services as a world-class global processing centre.
“This is an important ground of venture for new talents to come and explore the many opportunities in store, specifically in the banking industry,” Usman said at the courtesy call.
The CSC Penang hub is the largest trade processing centre in Citigroup globally, and it offers operations to support Citi’s trade, cash management and commercial cards businesses, covering over 100 countries with a corresponding network of 3,300 banks.
Apart from Penang, the other two CSCs are located in Kuala Lumpur and Johor.
Meanwhile, Chow said during this period of self-realisation and the need to be critical and timely, it was important to not waste any form of resources presented to us.
“It is important to not let anything go to waste, and if traditional experience can be leveraged with new technology, so be it.
“It was proven, ever since we were hit by the Covid-19 crisis last year, that the need to include technology in our everyday lives has risen without a shadow of a doubt,” Chow said.
Accompanying Usman during the courtesy call were Citigroup Transaction Services (M) Sdn Bhd (Penang branch) managing director Alicia Vieira and CTSM head of payments and receivables operations Audrey MH Foo.
Alicia thanked the Penang government for progressively allowing accessibility for Citi Malaysia to monitor the operations in the Penang branch amid the Covid-19 climate.
“We didn’t see this in all our territories.
“The company is truly grateful for the support and proactive measures taken by the government here to manage the crisis in a good manner, while enabling us to still operate,” she added.
Citi has been in Malaysia since 1959 and has more than 6,000 employees in 11 branches.
They offer consumers, corporations and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking, corporate banking, treasury and trade, markets and securities services as well as transaction services via the Citi Solutions Centers.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Law Suun Ting