Citibank: Making a difference in Bangladesh
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Mamun Rashid
CITIBANK, N.A. started its humble journey in Bangladesh with a representative office back in 1987. The bank opened its first full-service branch in Dhaka in 1995 with a small team of four employees. Today, the bank has four branches, one service outlet and three offshore banking units with 178 driven individuals committed to serving the most reputed corporate customers, banks and other financial institutions.
In the 15 years that have transpired, we have led the way in Bangladesh with innovative landmark solutions that have helped open the Bangladesh financial markets and closed some of the 'first ever' deals in the history of the country. We completed the first-ever Micro Credit Receivables Securitization in the world for BRAC, a top-tier multilateral financial institution of the country. We were the exclusive financial advisor to A.K. Khan and Co. Ltd. in their much talked-about sale of 30% stake in TMIB (former AKTEL) to NTT DoCoMo. We were the exclusive financial advisor, sole private placement agent, sole initial public offering (IPO) issue manager, lead IPO underwriter, main banker to the issue and escrow agent for the largest IPO and pre-IPO placement in Bangladesh for Grameenphone Ltd., the number one telephone operator.
But at Citi, an institution with a legacy around 200 years and presence in over 100 countries, business is much more than that. It is about responsibility to our customers, our stakeholders, our franchise, and our people. And that is why, in this space today, we try to measure the organisation's performance in the past 15 years by applying Citi to the Triple Bottom Line model and evaluating its successes in light of the three pillars -- Profit, People and Planet.
We start with Profit as it is the most obvious and most indispensable of the three pillars. The bank increased its revenue by eight times in the last eight years. We have positioned ourselves at the top of the league - one step ahead of its competitors with the most efficient utilisation of financial & human resources and smartest management of the balance sheet.
When Ice Today, a renowned magazine, conducted a survey among the graduate students in 2009, Citi ranked third as the Employer of Choice. Citi has an excellent pool of talent with 90% of the resources being business graduates. During the turbulent times due to global recession, Citi has never compromised on the human resource development front, considering People as the most valued of all assets. In 2009, we conducted 12 local and 11 foreign trainings with over 5500 Training man-hours. It is remarkable that 20% of Citi Bangladesh's Country Coordination Committee now comprises of female members - a percentage which was near zero just a few years back.
Whilst our efforts are consciously aligned towards bringing better diversity at the workplace, the continued focus on self-improvement, training has also reaped benefits in the form nine Citi Bangladesh resources being welcomed to Citibank overseas offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Vietnam and most recently, France.
At Citi, we define citizenship as the positive impact that we have on society through our core business activities, philanthropy, and volunteerism. Here Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a mechanical process of allocation, it is all about how Citi does business keeping in mind its commitment to the community and nation that we are citizens of. As a part of this commitment, Citi Bangladesh, in alignment with Citi globally, has been organising the Global Community Day for the past four years.
The programme supports the causes of underprivileged children, senior citizens and the mentally challenged members of our community. This event, although organised by Citi employees, attracts volunteers who are friends, family members, clients, regulators, human rights activists, distinguished personalities magnifying our ability to give more back to the cause of community building. As a part of its responsibility to the environment, Citi does not finance any project that may have even an indirect detrimental effect on the environment in the distant future.
We introduced the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards in 2005 to recognise and honour leadership, entrepreneurial skills and best practices of individual microentrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
We are the pioneer in the financial education front of the country. The Citi Financial Quiz Competition funded by Citi for the second consecutive time and managed by North South University (NSU) is the only one of its kind in Bangladesh. Citi Light of the Future Contest, which was implemented and managed by the World Literature Centre Bangladesh, is designed to encourage young minds to think creatively. Citi Scholarships for Young Women, the newest addition in Citi Foundation's programmes in Bangladesh, provided financial assistance to young aspiring female students from five universities outside the capital to encourage education for female in the rural areas.
The Financial IT Case Competition launched in 2009 in association with D.Net is the first of its kind in Bangladesh and is providing an opportunity for young and talented minds from different public and private universities to compete in the development of unique software and information system solutions for the financial sector in Bangladesh.
We contributed to the Chief Advisers Relief and Welfare Fund for Sidr victims as part of Citi's promise to stand by the side of the disaster victims right after the cyclone Sidr devastated the southern region of the country.
At Citi, the trust that people have invested in us through the years has been the key to our achievement of unparalleled excellence in these unprecedented times. It is the confidence of our employees, our clients and stakeholders that has fuelled our accomplishments. No matter how fierce the competition, how great the need for survival, we remain equally committed to the People and Planet as it was to the Profit.
We ardently feel that it is this belief, this guiding principle and this legacy of responsibility towards our community, our nation that set us miles apart from the other business organisations. As we celebrate 15 glorious years of successful partnership with our stakeholders in Bangladesh, we would like to thank our stakeholders for bestowing the gift of this valued partnership and look forward to the future with great anticipation.
Mamun Rashid is the Citi country officer, Bangladesh. He can be reached at :mamun.rashid@citi.com
CITIBANK, N.A. started its humble journey in Bangladesh with a representative office back in 1987. The bank opened its first full-service branch in Dhaka in 1995 with a small team of four employees. Today, the bank has four branches, one service outlet and three offshore banking units with 178 driven individuals committed to serving the most reputed corporate customers, banks and other financial institutions.
In the 15 years that have transpired, we have led the way in Bangladesh with innovative landmark solutions that have helped open the Bangladesh financial markets and closed some of the 'first ever' deals in the history of the country. We completed the first-ever Micro Credit Receivables Securitization in the world for BRAC, a top-tier multilateral financial institution of the country. We were the exclusive financial advisor to A.K. Khan and Co. Ltd. in their much talked-about sale of 30% stake in TMIB (former AKTEL) to NTT DoCoMo. We were the exclusive financial advisor, sole private placement agent, sole initial public offering (IPO) issue manager, lead IPO underwriter, main banker to the issue and escrow agent for the largest IPO and pre-IPO placement in Bangladesh for Grameenphone Ltd., the number one telephone operator.
But at Citi, an institution with a legacy around 200 years and presence in over 100 countries, business is much more than that. It is about responsibility to our customers, our stakeholders, our franchise, and our people. And that is why, in this space today, we try to measure the organisation's performance in the past 15 years by applying Citi to the Triple Bottom Line model and evaluating its successes in light of the three pillars -- Profit, People and Planet.
We start with Profit as it is the most obvious and most indispensable of the three pillars. The bank increased its revenue by eight times in the last eight years. We have positioned ourselves at the top of the league - one step ahead of its competitors with the most efficient utilisation of financial & human resources and smartest management of the balance sheet.
When Ice Today, a renowned magazine, conducted a survey among the graduate students in 2009, Citi ranked third as the Employer of Choice. Citi has an excellent pool of talent with 90% of the resources being business graduates. During the turbulent times due to global recession, Citi has never compromised on the human resource development front, considering People as the most valued of all assets. In 2009, we conducted 12 local and 11 foreign trainings with over 5500 Training man-hours. It is remarkable that 20% of Citi Bangladesh's Country Coordination Committee now comprises of female members - a percentage which was near zero just a few years back.
Whilst our efforts are consciously aligned towards bringing better diversity at the workplace, the continued focus on self-improvement, training has also reaped benefits in the form nine Citi Bangladesh resources being welcomed to Citibank overseas offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Vietnam and most recently, France.
At Citi, we define citizenship as the positive impact that we have on society through our core business activities, philanthropy, and volunteerism. Here Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a mechanical process of allocation, it is all about how Citi does business keeping in mind its commitment to the community and nation that we are citizens of. As a part of this commitment, Citi Bangladesh, in alignment with Citi globally, has been organising the Global Community Day for the past four years.
The programme supports the causes of underprivileged children, senior citizens and the mentally challenged members of our community. This event, although organised by Citi employees, attracts volunteers who are friends, family members, clients, regulators, human rights activists, distinguished personalities magnifying our ability to give more back to the cause of community building. As a part of its responsibility to the environment, Citi does not finance any project that may have even an indirect detrimental effect on the environment in the distant future.
We introduced the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards in 2005 to recognise and honour leadership, entrepreneurial skills and best practices of individual microentrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
We are the pioneer in the financial education front of the country. The Citi Financial Quiz Competition funded by Citi for the second consecutive time and managed by North South University (NSU) is the only one of its kind in Bangladesh. Citi Light of the Future Contest, which was implemented and managed by the World Literature Centre Bangladesh, is designed to encourage young minds to think creatively. Citi Scholarships for Young Women, the newest addition in Citi Foundation's programmes in Bangladesh, provided financial assistance to young aspiring female students from five universities outside the capital to encourage education for female in the rural areas.
The Financial IT Case Competition launched in 2009 in association with D.Net is the first of its kind in Bangladesh and is providing an opportunity for young and talented minds from different public and private universities to compete in the development of unique software and information system solutions for the financial sector in Bangladesh.
We contributed to the Chief Advisers Relief and Welfare Fund for Sidr victims as part of Citi's promise to stand by the side of the disaster victims right after the cyclone Sidr devastated the southern region of the country.
At Citi, the trust that people have invested in us through the years has been the key to our achievement of unparalleled excellence in these unprecedented times. It is the confidence of our employees, our clients and stakeholders that has fuelled our accomplishments. No matter how fierce the competition, how great the need for survival, we remain equally committed to the People and Planet as it was to the Profit.
We ardently feel that it is this belief, this guiding principle and this legacy of responsibility towards our community, our nation that set us miles apart from the other business organisations. As we celebrate 15 glorious years of successful partnership with our stakeholders in Bangladesh, we would like to thank our stakeholders for bestowing the gift of this valued partnership and look forward to the future with great anticipation.
Mamun Rashid is the Citi country officer, Bangladesh. He can be reached at :mamun.rashid@citi.com