(March 26): Citigroup Inc’s Jan Metzger, co-head of investment banking for Asia, is leaving to take up a senior role at Standard Chartered Plc.
Metzger will become global head, coverage banking at the Asia-focused lender, according to a Standard Chartered spokesman.
Metzger is departing after Citigroup in September named a new executive to share his role in Asia. The Wall Street bank today appointed Kaustubh Kulkarni, who was tapped from JPMorgan Chase & Co, as sole head of investment banking for the region, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
Metzger is stepping into a bank with an underwhelming investment banking franchise, a field where the technology banker has spent decades building expertise. Standard Chartered is in the midst of a restructuring drive aimed at streamlining operations and cutting costs.
The bank’s “Fit for Growth” restructuring programme is aimed at streamlining operations and saving US$1.5 billion. Chief financial officer Diego De Giorgi surprised colleagues and investors by resigning in February. He had been seen as the top internal candidate to ultimately replace chief executive officer Bill Winters.
While Metzger has helped Citigroup land some of Asia’s biggest tech mandates, the bank’s equity capital markets record has been uneven. It briefly rose to No. 1 in Asia stock sales in 2024, only to slide back to seventh in subsequent years.
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Kulkarni is based in Singapore and reports to global banking chief Viswas Raghavan, another ex‑JPMorgan banker who moved to Citi in 2024. Chief executive officer Jane Fraser brought on Raghavan to help boost returns at Citigroup’s banking unit.
Since joining, Raghavan has been aggressively poaching former colleagues globally to boost the firm’s share of Asia’s banking fee wallet. In Asia, the bank has also hired three senior employees from Goldman Sachs Group Inc and two senior debt bankers from Deutsche Bank AG.
Metzger, who grew up in Sri Lanka, started out as a software engineer before moving into finance in 2000. He joined Citigroup in 2015 from Credit Suisse, where he led regional technology, media and telecommunications investment banking coverage and helped oversee Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s initial public offering in New York.
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