Citi Intensifies LatAm Client Focus With Florida Hire

Eliane Chavagnon

5 February 2013

Citi Private Bank has brought in Luke Palacio as managing director and regional market manager for the Southeast region, as the firm also looks to expand its ultra high net worth Latin American business.

Based in Miami, FL, Palacio is tasked with reinforcing the firm’s presence throughout South Florida and beyond what Citi describes as the “key locations” of Miami, Boca Raton and Palm Beach. He will also instigate a strategic focus on UHNW Latin American clients based in North America.

Palacio takes up his role on March 18 and will report to Paul Hubert, global market manager for the Eastern region. According to Hubert, Palacio has around 20 years of industry experience, of which a significant proportion has been spent focusing on the UHNW market in the Southeast region and Latin America.

Meanwhile, Palacio is also tasked with expanding Citi’s UHNW group across Latin American markets such as Chile, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. In this capacity, he will report to Genaro Poulat, global market manager for Latin America.

Palacio joins Citi from JP Morgan Private Bank, where he was a managing director and senior banker in Miami and led a team that serves UHNW families. He also served for seven years as a member of the private bank's Latin America operating committee.

Opportunity in LatAm

In a sign that Latin America is increasingly perceived as an important market, many US firms have been making hires and launching offices in recent months to serve clients across the region. In June of last year for example, Mora Wealth Management established an office in Miami in light of “a growing Latin American affluent investor market,” which the firm noted has grown by 18.1 per cent in millionaire wealth since 2007. More recently, in October Saxo Bank, the Copenhagen-headquartered online trading and investment firm, grew its Latin American footprint with the acquisition of NVN Securities Agente de Valores, a Uruguayan broker, while in December Grand Cayman-based Cainvest International Bank said it was looking to expand there by partnering with family offices.