CITIBANK will move its headquarters from the financial district of New Kingston to Hope Road by March in order to shed its prestigious but underutilised tower.

The bank has agreed to lease a new three-storey complex from developer Peter Rousseau and will vacate the three floors and lobby of the tower owned by Sagicor Life Jamaica.

“We are basically moving to a location to better facilitate our business and create a structure that is tailored to us,” stated country manager Peter Moses in an interview with the Business Observer on Monday.

He explained that the relative bustle of New Kingston never benefited Citibank as it focused on a core group of corporate clients rather than mass retail banking. It has resulted in underutilised space originally geared towards its retail operations.

“We are just a corporate bank that does large transactions,” said Moses.

“When we came to Jamaica we were a very different bank offering retail, commercial (and) real estate banking and now we really don’t need the location. It doesn’t fit where we are going today,” he added

Citibank’s loan portfolio of $2.4 billion and capital of $3.4 billion makes it some nine times smaller than National Commercial Bank, the largest local bank, which has $30 billion in equity, according to new data from the Bank of Jamaica for the period up to September 2010.

“We have had a very successful operation and (corporate banking) has clearly defined us,” he explained. A recent large transaction included the Jamaica Debt Exchange in which Citibank acted on the Government’s behalf to reduce interest payments on the country’s huge debt burden equating to saving of some $40 billion annually.

The plan to move began five years ago during which time Citibank “got involved with the developer” to construct a property tailored to its requirements. For instance, Moses explained that clients don’t want to sit in traffic jams or fight for parking to enter a bank.

“We thought it was best to find a location that was not as congested,” said Moses, who heads a team of 75 employees.

The suburban-based complex on the corner of Hillcrest and Hope Road is Rousseau’s latest venture, the co-founder of Ciboney Hotels and a slew of businesses, including his first development company at age 30.

The bank has rented the New Kingston tower since 1974.

“We were one of the few entities that came to New Kingston at the time,” Moses said, adding that Citibank previously had head offices on Kings Street and on Half-Way-Tree Road.