Indian operations of Citi bank have doubled profit for the year ended March 31, 2008. The bank has gained 100% profit rise notwithstanding sub prime crisis. It has reported a net profit of Rs1804 cror in current fiscal in comparison to profit of Rs900 crore in the previous fiscal. India has become one of the largest international contributors for Citi’s global profit. Citi bank has now become the largest foreign bank in the country both on net profit basis and balance sheet size. In fact, the corporate investment bank was one of the largest contributors to its Asian operations. Comment on this achievement, Citi India chief executive officer Sanjay Nayar said, “Our organic strategy has started working extremely well. The growth in balance sheet has happened even in a generally constrained environment. The group had infused Rs 1,000-1,500 crore into the bank and the remaining in the NBFCs.”

City bank has a network of 39 branches. It has managed to make more profits than some of the bigger public and private sector banks. The biggest public sector bank, Punjab National Bank has reported a net profit of Rs 2,048.76 crore while Canara Bank reported a net profit of Rs 1,565 crore. The second largest private bank, HDFC has reported a net profit of Rs 1,590 crore for the year.

One of the major drivers for CIti’s profits has been the 82% rise in fee income. It was contributed by profits from forex, commission income and sale of investments. The bank had also sold some of its residential flats which helped the bank report a net profit on sale of premises of Rs66 crore. Non-US revenue has contributed to 54% of Citi’s revenues while revenue from Asia has contributed 17% in 2007.

Mr Nayar added that outsourcing is not an asset-heavy business and bank is looking at ways and means of running the business more efficiently. Incidentally, Citi India had reported a $5.1 billion loss in the first quarter of April and it had said that Indian operations of bank had contributed to the decline in Citigroup’s net income from Asia.