Citigroup reportedly has plans to create a wholly owned China-based investment banking unit by the end of 2024.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the American multinational, which currently offers both corporate and institutional banking services in China, would be looking to make 30 new hires for the investment banking unit’s launch.

The source added that the unit’s operations would focus on the domestic capital market and that Citi may boost staff in the unit to almost 100 over the coming years by hiring locally or transferring staff from other markets it operates within.

Reports of the unit follow Citi’s decision to sell its Chinese onshore consumer wealth portfolio to HSBC Bank China, with the company stating at the time that the transaction would cover total deposits and investment assets under management of around $3.6 billion.

Offloading the China wealth portfolio, along with the reported plans for the China-based investment bank launch, likely resonate with Citi chief executive Jane Fraser’s recent pledge to make sweeping organisational reform to the bank’s operations in a bid to satisfy shareholders.

Upon announcing the changes throughout Citi’s operations, Fraser said she was “determined” that Citi would deliver to its full potential and that the changes would ultimately “eliminate unnecessary complexity across the bank”.

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