A former investment banker with Citi will be returning to the American lender to lead its financial institutions group for Hong Kong.

Loretta Ko joins as the head of the FIG unit for Hong Kong from Banco Santander, where she held the same position. In addition to Citi, where she spent 15 years between 1989 and 2004, she had previously also worked for the likes of ANZ and Standard Chartered.

«Hong Kong financial institutions (group) is a significant and growing part of corporate banking in the country as well as a critical contributor to the broader Asia Pacific financial institutions franchise,» said a «Reuters» report citing the bank's statement. 

Gender Mix

Not unlike many major competitors, Citi has placed a focus on creating a quantitive gender balance in its workforce which includes a target of having women make up at least 40 percent of assistance vice president to managing director-leveled jobs by 2021-end.

According to the bank, Asia is rapidly making progress towards that goal with the current figure at 39 percent. In 2019, 14 of the total 45 newly named managing directors (31 percent) in Asia were female, up from eight in the previous year.