Kaul named Citi's new retail banking head

Citigroup has quickly bounced back from the recent departure of Rahul Malhotra, naming veteran banker Sunil Kaul as its new head of Asia-Pacific retail banking. With immediate effect, Kaul will take over the role vacated recently by Malhotra, who left the firm for Merrill Lynch after a lengthy tenure with Citi.

From its Singapore offices, Kaul will report directly to Ashok Vaswani, CitiÆs chief executive officer of global consumer banking, Asia-Pacific. Kaul will also continue his former role as regional head of CitiBusiness, the groupÆs offering that targets small and medium-sized enterprises.

To his new role, Kaul brings over 20 years of banking experience, which spans CitiÆs corporate and investment bank and its consumer bank. Over his time at the bank, he has held roles in transaction banking, cash management, Citiphone, non-resident Indian business in the US, Latin America international personal banking and e-solutions.

Malhotra recently left the bank to assume the newly-created role at Merrill as managing director and head of global private client group, India. Based in Singapore, Malhotra will be responsible for global private client group's onshore operation in India as well as its non-resident Indian (NRI) business. For Citi, he also held a number of senior positions at the same firm, including global head of non-resident Indian business in London and the Dubai-based role of area director for CitiÆs Middle East and non-resident Indian business.