China to further open financial sector, regulator tells Citigroup CEO

BEIJING (Reuters) – Citigroup (NYSE:)’s Chief Executive Jane Fraser held a meeting with the head of China’s new financial regulator on Monday, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) said, as the bank expands its presence in the market after withdrawing from retail banking globally.

China will open up its financial sector further, Li Yunze, chief of China’s financial regulator told Fraser, the NFRA said in a statement on Wednesday.

The U.S. lender started shutting down its retail banking business in China last December due to a global strategy shift. Currently it offers corporate and institutional banking, global markets and wealth businesses in China.

Fraser is the first foreign executive to meet Li since he assumed the role in May, leading a regulator overseeing China’s multi-trillion dollar financial industry, excluding the securities sector.

Her trip follows J.P. Morgan’s chief Jamie Dimon, who visited Shanghai last week, after a flurry of other global financial chief having trips to Beijing in March.

Li told the Citi chief that China will further open up its financial markets to foreign investors, the regulator said. Citi is applying to set up a securities brokerage in China.