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It has been over two years since Pablo Del Valle was appointed as Citi Group’s Caribbean and Central America Cluster Head.

Born in Guatemala, he joined Citi in 2000 as Corporate Finance Head. He then became responsible for Citi Guatemala’s Corporate Finance, Investment Banking, Global Subsidiaries Group (GSG), Financial Institutions and Public Sector coverage.  He has also headed Citi’s operations in Colombia.

Last week Pablo Del Valle visited Jamaica to celebrate the 65th year of Citi’s operations there and reaffirm the global banking behemoth’s commitment to the country.

In an interview with Our Today, Del Valle offered insight into his role and together with Citi Jamaica Country Officer, Eva Lewis talked about Citi’s footprint in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Trinidad & Tobago. 

“The solutions we provide are bespoke,” he said, distinguishing Citi’s services from those of traditional players who provide retail commercial, corporate and investment banking services to the public.”

Operating in ninety-six countries, Citi offers retail banking services in only three countries: the United States, in Mexico through Banamex, and in Poland under the name Citi Handlowy. The financial institution markets its wealth management capabilities across fifty jurisdictions, none of which are in  Latin America.

Del Valle is responsible for Citi’s operations in ten countries across Central America and the Caribbean, where it holds banking licences.

“And I’m also responsible for nine non-presence countries where we do not have a banking license, but we have some sort of commercial activity. My role is to ensure that our selected client base receives our services and our products in the same fashion in Jamaica as they do in Hong Kong or they do in Atlanta. The core of our business proposition is that we are the preeminent banking institution for clients that have cross-border needs,” he further outlined.

Globally, Citibank, the commercial and corporate banking subsidiary of Citi Group, facilitates the movement of about US$4 trillion daily, as one of the major players supporting supply chain trade interactions, according to Del Valle. Additionally, the financial institution is a channel for approximately US$5 trillion in liquidity.

Last month, Citi Group posted its first quarter results which saw its profit climb by 21 per cent to US$4.1 billion or US$1.96 per share. Revenue was up by 3 per cent to US$21.60 billion on lower expenses. This performance exceeded analysts’ expectations.

At the regional level, the American financial giant supports its multinational clients who have footprints in both Central America and the Caribbean. Yet, like its Canadian counterparts who established a presence in the Caribbean to facilitate trade, Citi’s major focus is its delivery of trade finance and trade services.

“For most of the international transfers, when you send an international transfer from one place to the other, the likelihood of that transfer going through Citi at some point in the world is huge. So, from the particular trade perspective, coming to Jamaica, we do two large things in Jamaica — one is that we provide trade finance and trade services,” Del Valle told Our Today.

“Trade finance is funding for pre-export or funding for pre-import to large importers or large exporters. Two, is that we provide trade finance lines to local financial institutions, who in turn provide trade finance opportunities to their target market. So, we cover a broad span of the Jamaican economy by serving the larger clients of the economy, which are in our direct target market, and by indirectly supporting trade finance and trade services opportunities to clients that are being served by financial institutions who we don’t cover,” the Citi regional head continued.

The trade services to which Del Valle refers include letters of credit, collection services, and bank guarantees, as well as fostering correspondent banking relationships with local players. He pointed to Citi’s legacy of 210 years, 120 of which have been in Latin America and the Caribbean.

When asked in what ways trade financing is offered – whether receivables or inventory financing – he explained that the bank has simplified the process with digitalisation of its Supplier Chain Finance product line.

“It’s a fully digital product that does not require an invoice but only requires an agreement between the buyer and the supplier,” Del Valle explained, adding that Citi serves as the middleman in most transactions.

 The Supplier Chain Finance product line has two components: local and international.

“We have a cross-border form of that programme, which is [that] either the buyer or the seller is in a different geography. The cross-border programme is particularly unique…because it’s very difficult to find a factoring programme between a local buyer in Jamaica and,… I don’t know, ….a supplier in North America or Asia or the Middle East,” Del Valle pointed out.

“But because of our global nature and the digital component of that particular product, we can put ourselves in the middle to provide liquidity to the parties without the parties being in the same location, without the parties having the same local laws or regulation, without the parties needing to have a credit document that meets local credit criteria,” he added.

The cluster lead noted that the advantage of enrolling in the Citi Supplier Chain Finance programme gives the local buyer even more credibility when entering into credit arrangements.

When asked why, despite its impact, Citi has remained so quiet, Del Valle highlighted the bespoke nature of the services it offers.

“We can do that because our target market criteria is very selective. So we are a wholesale bank with a selective target market. That target market has been hand-picked from clients that we believe will maximise or will benefit from our ‘globality’,” he informed Our Today. 

“So our products are not made to compete in the local markets. They are made to serve needs, serve cross-border needs. So there’s very little point in us being very public or use mass media to communicate what we do and what are our products,” Del Valle explained.

Describing the profile of the bank’s target market, Del Valle listed large corporations including local financial institutions, which are usually the leaders or second-largest in their industries, subsidiaries of multinationals, and governments and State-owned entities. On the government side, Citi helps governments to manage their liquidity and provide access to international capital markets. He added that partially or fully-owned government companies like Jamaica Public Service and Petrojam have large procurement needs which require funding.

On this note, Citi Jamaica Country Officer Eva Lewis highlighted the bank’s role as the sole and lead arranger of a US$480-million bond structured by the Ministry of Finance through the Airports Authorities to support infrastructure development. The bond was raised after the Government of Jamaica sold its future revenues from the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston under a current concession.

Eva Lewis, a Corporate banker with 38 years of experience in the industry reflected that the Jamaica Citi franchise has played a leading role in the development of the capital markets in Jamaica and also revealed that the bank was also the joint lead arranger for the Jamaican dollar-indexed US$300 million bond issued in the international capital markets, adding that Citi has been proud to be arranger /advisor for several landmark transactions in the international capital markets for the Government signalling its commitment to the macro economic development of the country.

She also revealed that the bank was also the lead arranger for the Jamaican dollar-indexed bond raised and floated in the international capital markets, adding that Citi has been an arranger of international bonds for the Government over the last 20 years.

In addition, the financial institution provides advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, fosters public-private partnership financing and foreign direct investment.