Kolkata: The consumer banking business of Citibank India is all set to be merged with Axis Bank from March 1.
The process of rebranding has already begun, marked by the signboard at Citi India’s iconic Kolkata office being taken down. While the merger is set to come into effect from March 1, Citibank India employees expect some time to pass before the actual integration of the two behemoths to come into effect in a meaningful way.
Axis Bank and Citibank India have different work culture and human resource (HR) policies including leaves policies and accessibility of supervisors, said a Citibank India employee on condition of anonymity, adding that, the difference in work culture stems from the fact that Citi India is owned and operated by multinational organisation based in the US.
Additionally, Axis Bank will also have to do a product realignment exercise eliminating overlapping products in one segment, said another employee. For example, Axis Bank will have to restructure its product in the high networth segment, where Citibank was predominantly present, she said. This applies to all products including credit cards, retail banking and wealth management.
