Industry legend Neeraj Sahai is departing Citi to take up the role of president of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, effective January 2014.
In his 29 years with the bank, serving most recently as global head of securities and fund services, Sahai has helped to build and manage franchises and client relationships within Corporate Banking, Financial Institutions and Transaction Services.
His decision to depart Citi comes as the bank looks to realign its securities and fund services offering. As of now the business units that were in the Securities and Fund Services businesses are now in the newly formed Markets and Securities Services Unit. The business will continue to provide services to issuers, intermediaries and investor clients as before. A Citi spokesperson said: “It made sense to combine these business units with capital markets in order to have a seamless offering across all client groups which those units interact with.”
Effective immediately, Paco Ybarra’s role and responsibilities will be broadened to head of Markets and Securities Services. This unit comprises the existing Markets businesses, including the newly formed Investor Services business, which is a combination of the investor-related segments of Securities and Fund Services (SFS) with certain investor services activities in Markets) headed by Okan Pekin, and the Direct Custody and Clearing business headed by Lee Waite. Issuer Services, headed by Alan Smith, will now report to Tyler Dickson, Head of Capital Markets Origination.
Sahai and Ybarra, who was formerly head of global markets at Citi, will work closely over the next several weeks to ensure a smooth transition for these businesses as the bank implements the new management construct.
Investor Services will comprise the Wealth and Asset Manager Services, Securities Lending, Private Equity and Hedge Fund Investor Services lines within SFS, alongside the Prime Finance Services, Futures and Derivative Clearing businesses of Markets.
Prior to this appointment, Pekin was head of Global Institutional Sales for FX and Local Markets and regional sales for CEEMEA. During his 24 years at Citi, Pekin has held a number of regional and product management positions covering our investor client base.
Neeraj Sahai to Depart Citi
Sahai's decision to depart Citi comes as the bank looks to realign its securities and fund services offering. He will take up the role of president of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in January 2014.