Citigroup is preparing for the likely grant of a regulatory licence for a wholly-owned China brokerage business as soon as this month and has lined up a significant hiring programme to staff the unit, according to two people familiar with the plans.
The timing of a potential approval may coincide with Chinese President Xi Jinping's scheduled visit to Washington to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in late September, the sources said. Citi has not publicly confirmed the expected approval or the personnel plans.
The U.S. bank first sought permission to establish a fully owned mainland brokerage in late 2021 as part of a broader effort to scale up its presence in China. In preparation for the licence, Citi has been recruiting for the business over the past two years and now intends to increase the unit's headcount by several dozen people over the next few months, with a target to roughly double the team to around 100 employees by the end of the year, one of the people said.
The expansion will include a mix of senior front-office bankers and support staff, sourced through internal transfers and external hires. Citi plans to relocate some bankers from Hong Kong and other Asian markets and to transfer existing mainland staff into the new unit, the same person added.
Business scope and client strategy
The proposed China securities unit is seeking regulatory approval to operate A-share brokerage, underwriting, research and principal trading businesses in the onshore market. These capabilities would sit alongside the bank's existing offshore-focused China investment banking team, which currently supports domestic companies seeking financing overseas.
Citi intends to leverage its sizeable onshore corporate and commercial banking client base - which it serves in areas such as foreign exchange, cash management and trade finance - to pursue A-share equity mandates and M&A advisory work. The new unit will concentrate on technology, healthcare, consumer and financial institutions, targeting both established domestic corporate leaders and emerging players, including companies in AI and semiconductor sectors.
Competitive context
The launch of a fully owned China brokerage would position Citi alongside other U.S. banks that already hold onshore securities licences, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, in competing for a growing pool of domestic trading and underwriting fees. In recent annual reports, the wholly-owned China securities units of U.S. banks showed marked profit increases: Goldman Sachs reported profits of 1.46 billion yuan in 2025, JPMorgan's onshore securities business recorded 984 million yuan, and Morgan Stanley's China securities profit rose to 138 million yuan last year. Those figures reflect a surge in securities trading revenue, largely from institutional clients. The 1.46 billion yuan figure for Goldman Sachs converts to $217.39 million at the exchange rate cited.
Beijing has been broadening access to its financial sector for global firms despite heightened Sino-U.S. geopolitical tensions in recent years, as authorities look to attract additional capital inflows into onshore markets worth trillions of dollars.
Operational and market considerations
Sources said the bank's China hiring push will draw on a combination of internal transfers and external recruitment to build out the new brokerage, bringing in front-office expertise and support functions. The recruitment will be done discreetly; the people declined to be named because the expansion plans are not public.
Citi also recently announced a separate 25% increase in headcount across South Africa, Europe and Asia to serve its North Asian clients' outbound banking needs, an initiative that includes clients from mainland China.
The bank will face competition not only from other licensed foreign firms but also from large domestic brokerages in China. Some foreign financial firms have withdrawn or restructured their onshore operations in recent times amid the highly competitive environment; last month, asset manager Fidelity International was planning to wind down a China fund management unit, while Schroders moved its onshore team and products to a peer firm, as part of that trend.
Governance and profitability targets
The push to grow onshore capabilities comes as Citi's chief executive, Jane Fraser, who was the only female global banking chief to accompany President Trump on his May visit to Beijing, is pressing for stronger profitability targets for the next two years. The China expansion is part of that broader effort to lift returns.
Should regulatory approval arrive as anticipated, Citi would join a small but growing group of international banks operating fully owned securities businesses on the Chinese mainland, seeking to capture a larger share of onshore trading, underwriting and advisory fees.
Exchange rate used in referenced figures: $1 = 6.7160 Chinese yuan renminbi.