One Reason Why Citibank is falling.

Citibank never targeted the right customer segment. In India, all they targeted was a corporate account, so they could get their hands on loads of cash, and salary account, so they could hold on to the same loads of cash, just in a different account. If a average person wanted to open an account, they were ignored or  treated with arrogance and disrespect. It took my friend nearly 40 days to open a Suvidha account. That is compared to a 3 day it took me to open a salary account.

The problem with this strategy is that holding on to corporate cash is not easy. It comes in as fast as it goes out. Also the bank is obliged to give loans. On the other hand, an average Indian want to save. They would put money in the bank at let it remain there for years. The same money could be given to deserving companies with which the banks would earn. The bottom line is that the common man is loyal and in a country like India you cannot refuse deposits made by the common man. Its because of small busniess and vendors, savings of hard earned individuals etc is the reason why most banks in India are growing at a rapid pace.

No matter in what business you are you have to segment the market and tailor you products for each segment. It doesn't matter how profitable one is over the other. Citibank's narrow-minded approach of targeting just the (risky) upper segment has lead to it downfall.