Vanessa Wang has been appointed Citi’s pension services head in Asia-Pacific for global transaction services and will be responsible for expanding the bank’s business in the pensions and endowments sectors across the region.
Wang was previously at Mercer where she was a partner and also held the role of Asia head of the consulting firm’s retirement, risk and finance (RFF) business. In her 11 years at the firm’s New York office she was responsible for shaping and expanding the RRF business in Asia.
At Citi, Wang will work closely with the bank’s product partners and consumer bank, global banking and global markets businesses to identify new business opportunities and to develop pension fund solutions.
“This is one of Citi’s priority areas for investment and we are delighted to welcome Vanessa to Citi,” said David Russell, Citi’s Asia-Pacific securities and fund services head, in a statement. “Citi has a track record of delivering innovative solutions to the pension and endowments sector and we look forward to helping old and new clients grow further under Vanessa’s leadership.”
According to the bank, pension funds make up one of the largest and fastest growing pools of capital in Asia which has been growing by 20%, on average, for the last five years.
Separately, Citi global transaction services has announced that its WorldLink Payment Services offering is now being utilised to speed up the settlement of renminbi payments. Settlement time can be reduced by up to one week allowing a clearing time as short as two days for cross-border renminbi payments.
Following recent reforms that have reduced renminbi restrictions, payments to approved corporations in China can now be received in two days and without a volume restriction through WorldLink.
“The world has been waiting for the renminbi restriction to loosen. With WorldLink we have been able to manage RMB payments in the context of regulations,” said Alan Lin, Citi’s China head of global transaction services, in a statement. “Now we can provide our clients with an improved offering which will allow them to cut their payments time to beneficiaries in China.”
Furthermore, Citibank Shanghai will now complete foreign exchange conversions, which were previously processed by beneficiary banks, before relaying payment instructions, giving WorldLink Payment Services increased control and visibility into the foreign exchange process.
Each year, WorldLink Payment Services processes more than 30 million payments with a total value of $750 billion in more than 135 currencies. It is a non-account-based multi-currency payment solution designed for corporations, financial institutions and public entities.
