While much Brazilian news is dominated by coverage of upcoming national polls, the US-based bank sees growth potential in the wealth management field.

Citigroup intends to almost double its private banker headcount for the Brazilian market over the next two years, mindful of competition in Latin America’s largest economy, a senior executive has said.

The private bank wants to add 10 bankers, bringing the team to 25, Cesar Chicayban, who runs the business in Brazil, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. The bank serves 550 Brazilian families with at least $10 million to invest. It has recruited five bankers in the past year in Sao Paulo and New York, including Vivien Dias, who worked for more than 10 years at JP Morgan Asset Management, the report said.

“We want to keep delivering for the next five years the same double-digit robust growth we had in the past two,” Chicayban said in an interview. Family Wealth Report has contacted the bank to confirm the report’s details, and may update later.

While Brazilian citizens are bracing themselves for national presidential elections next month, and the country’s economy has been through difficult times, the country is still seen as a fruitful hunting ground for wealth managers. For example, in February Hong Kong-based insurance and investment group Fosun International bought Brazilian asset manager Guide Investimentos for $52 million; in May last year UBS bought a majority stake in Brazil-based multi-family office CONSENSO, an organization overseeing more than BRL20 billion (around $6.1 billion). Merrill Lynch last year flagged the importance of Brazil with a senior hire, to take another example. Brazil-based Safra, part of a long-standing business dynasty, owns the Switzerland-based Sarasin private banking group. 

In October 2015, rules restricting Brazilian investors in holding foreign assets were relaxed - another positive for the wealth industry in some respects. On the other hand, HSBC sold its Brazil subsidiary in 2015, preferring to focus more on regions such as Asia. (That move also came as HSBC sought to recover from compliance problems, such as in its Geneva-based private bank.) Citigroup sold its retail division in Brazil to Itau Unibanco Holding in October, as part of chief executive officer Michael Corbat’s plan to cut costs and boost returns. 

However, Citigroup’s private-banking business was not included in the Itau Unibanco deal, and it restructured to eliminate services such as local bank accounts and credit cards.

“We’re now servicing a very exclusive group of people with global needs; we are almost a private-banking boutique,” Chicayban was quoted as saying.