Citigroup has strengthened its French operations with the appointments of Eric Coutts and Arnaud de Marmiés as joint Citi country officers, effective immediately and replacing Jean-Claude Gruffat, who has been named European chairman of the Global Subsidiaries Group, according to an internal memo seen by WealthBriefing.

As CCOs, Coutts and de Marmiés are tasked with protecting and growing the Citi franchise in France and being “the face of Citi to key stakeholders in France”, according to the note.

CCOs are accountable for franchise governance and management, including regulatory relationships, franchise liquidity and balance sheet management, public sector and government relationships, compliance and anti-money laundering, human resources (including talent development), corporate and community affairs, the Citi Foundation and crisis management, said the note, which added that critical functions also include P&L management, and maintaining and reinforcing client relationships at all levels of the organisation.

In addition to assuming the role of CCO, Coutts will retain his current position of head of global banking for France, and de Marmiés will continue as head of markets for France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Coutts has worked at Goldman Sachs in European restructuring and as an M&A lawyer at Slaughter and May while de Marmiés has worked at Merrill Lynch and Société Générale.