(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. will double down on branches in the six U.S. metropolitan areas where it already operates as the bank sees clients continue to flock to physical locations.
The lender opened a 7,000-square foot (650-square-meter) branch inside its New York headquarters on Monday as part of its broader commitment to lower Manhattan, Citigroup said in a statement. The company is still weighing options for expanding its branch footprint beyond its six U.S. markets -- New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. -- said Gonzalo Luchetti, who oversees Citigroup's U.S. consumer-banking arm.
“We're very focused on doubling down in our core markets,” Luchetti said in an interview Monday with Bloomberg Television. “If you want to talk to somebody about your financial situation, financial planning, your small business, your mortgage, you many times want to talk to a human. And we want to deliver that.”
Citigroup has previously said it would be open to adding branches in new states where it already has a large concentration of customers, such as Texas, North Carolina and Ohio. The bank has also been investing in its digital capabilities, and in recent years added the ability for customers to sign up for a checking account without ever stepping foot in a branch.
Luchetti took over as head of the U.S. consumer business earlier this year after previously overseeing such operations in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. While in Asia, he helped Citigroup sign partnerships with the mobile apps Paytm and Grab.
For much of this year, Citigroup had been working on preparing a new checking-account offering in partnership with Alphabet Inc.'s Google. That push fell apart last month after Google shelved plans to add bank accounts to its payment app.
“We're disappointed in that,” Luchetti said. “We continue to partner with both physical as well as digital companies. We continue to talk to Google.”
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