Citi appoints Kanika Thakur as new corporate head

Citi has appointed Kanika Thakur as head of corporate, commercial and public sector sales for treasury and trade solutions (TTS) in Asia Pacific, effective immediately.

Thakur has been at Citi for more than 20 years in various senior positions, most recently as head of trade for Asia Pacific. She also served as head of Asia trade finance from 2017 to 2020, director of Asia trade risk distribution from 2014 to 2017 and structured trade transactor in Singapore from 2012 to 2014.

She succeeds Ernesto Pittaluga, who moves to become global head for Citi commercial bank sales for Citi TTS.
In her new position, Thakur will lead Citi’s TTS client growth strategy in Asia and internationally for Asian corporates, focusing on new client acquisition and revenue generation.

“I am excited to take on this new role and look forward to working with our teams across TTS to grow the business in Asia Pacific by helping clients who are global or going global with their complex multi-geography needs,” she says.

Thakur reports to Steve Elms, TTS head of corporate, commercial and public sector sales, and Rajesh Mehta, managing director and trade solutions head, Apac.

Citi says an announcement will be made in due course regarding Thakur’s replacement in her previous role.
“Kanika’s deep knowledge of the trade business and strong track record in innovation, building teams and relationships makes her an ideal candidate to lead the business. We look forward to leveraging her extensive experience and proven performance to lead the Asia sales organisation to the next level,” says Elms.

This is the latest senior management move for Citi, which earlier this year appointed Esther Chibesa and Marek Potoma as heads of TTS for its Europe, Middle East and Africa emerging markets to cluster. The appointments followed a reshuffle of Citi’s senior leadership at the end of last year, with Chris Cox named as the bank’s new global head of trade and working capital solutions.