On January 23, Citibank released an important notice on its official website regarding Citibank's personal banking credit card business in mainland China. It was stated that starting from May 6, 2024, Citibank's China personal credit card will cease trading functions and will no longer be able to be used for transaction purposes such as consumer payments. At the same time, the bank will gradually cease providing related product rights and services. The notice also emphasizes that this change is part of Citigroup's withdrawal from personal banking business in the Chinese market, and Citigroup's corporate business in China will not be affected.
The notice shows that Citigroup China has reached an agreement with Fubon Huayi Bank to transfer to it the credit card installment repayment balance or outstanding amount that has not been settled after the cessation of Citigroup China's personal bank credit card repayment service. Subsequently, after the deadline of Citibank China's personal credit card repayment service, any outstanding credit card installment repayment balance or outstanding amount involved must be repaid to Fubon Huayi Bank after the agreed time.
Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry at Broadcom Consulting, pointed out to a reporter from Shell Finance that the main reason for Citigroup's suspension of personal credit card transactions is that Citigroup's personal business needs to exit the Chinese market. Therefore, after finding someone to take over the personal account business and real estate business, no one took over the credit card business, resulting in the suspension in this way. The main reason behind this is that the domestic credit card market is already in a highly saturated state, with obvious characteristics of the stock market and fierce competition. On the other hand, there are numerous credit card financial products in the domestic market, which have a deeper degree of integration with scenarios, and platforms with traffic are also deeply involved. This leads to credit cards without their own characteristics being unsuitable in China.