The area of responsibility at includes wealth management (not including the private bank, however, which caters to ultra high net worth clients). The consumer and commercial banking arm has a footprint in 10 markets in the EMEA region, serving 2.5 million customers and 17,000 commercial clients.

Wadhwani previously served as the head of Citi’s cards and unsecured loans business for Asia and the head of its consumer banking business in South East Asia. His successor will be named in due course, the US banking giant said in a statement today. Wadhwani began his career with Citi in India in 1992.

“With more than two decades of experience in consumer banking in Asia, Anil is well-suited to lead EMEA consumer banking," said Manuel Medina-Mora, co-president, Citi, and chief executive, global consumer banking.

The Central Europe, Europe, Middle East and Africa region is described by Citi as “a particular area of potential growth due to rapidly expanding affluent and emerging affluent customer segments, relatively low consumer leverage and accelerating urbanization”.

The bank cited recent figures from the consultancy McKinsey & Co stating the potential wallet share in Citi’s markets is around $110 billion and is expected to grow at 11 per cent over the next five years.

“The emerging market consumer banking and wealth management businesses will be key growth areas in this region for many years to come,” said Jim Cowles, CEO of Citi’s EMEA region. “We believe the three trends of urbanization, digitization and globalization will continue to be on our side and contribute to the long term profitability of those businesses,” Cowles said.

Citi Global Consumer Banking provides retail, small business and commercial banking, wealth management, mortgages, and credit cards to more than 100 million clients in 36 countries.