Citi's licence is a sign that large US banks are deepening their mainland exposure in certain ways, despite trade friction between Washington and Beijing.

Citi has received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to establish Citigroup Securities (China) Company Limited (CSCCL), a wholly-owned securities company headquartered in Shanghai.

The onshore licence allows CSCCL to offer equities brokerage, securities underwriting, securities research and principal trading to domestic and foreign clients. Citi must still complete statutory and regulatory procedures before the business begins operating.

The approval ends a lengthy process. The US bank applied for a wholly-owned mainland brokerage licence in late 2021, having earlier exited a minority partnership. Citigroup Global Markets Asia sold its 33.3 per cent stake in Citi Orient Securities to its joint venture partner, Orient Securities, in 2019, it said in a statement yesterday.

While not strictly a wealth management or private banking development, the way that Citi’s different divisions feed into solutions for UHNW clients of the private bank make this development an important one. As Beijing has tightened controls on Chinese persons' use of offshore accounts, it also reinforces the need for international firms to try to build an onshore presence in the country.

The licence has been granted against a difficult political backdrop. Tensions eased somewhat after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed a 12-month truce in their trade wrangle in October 2025, but friction persists. China’s trade surplus with the US reached $34.01 billion in September 2026, the highest in 20 months. Even so, the deal shows how much commercial weight large US financial firms continue to place on China. 

Citi has operated in the country since 1902. It serves 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies operating in China and works with local corporate and public sector clients. The new licence allows it to underwrite deals onshore, complementing its offshore capabilities.

“By adding onshore capabilities to our global platform, we will be able to do more for clients in China’s domestic capital markets, including helping them raise capital, access investors and trade locally,” Jane Fraser, chair and chief executive officer of Citi, said.

Citi joins Wall Street rivals that moved earlier. The CSRC lifted the foreign ownership cap on securities companies from 1 April 2020, and JP Morgan won approval that August, with Goldman Sachs following two months later. Morgan Stanley is also licensed. Onshore businesses have become increasingly profitable: in 2025, profits at Goldman Sachs’ wholly-owned China securities unit nearly tripled to RMB1.46 billion ($217.39 million), while JP Morgan’s almost quadrupled to RMB984 million, according to their latest China annual reports, as reported by Reuters.