Citi is planning a 15% increase in its structured products team in Asia, from around 60 currently, its Hong Kong-based business head, Harold Kim, told journalists last week.
The US bank sees the structured retail products business as one of its three main priorities in 2010, Kim told Edge newspaper in Malaysia.
"The key to success is to understand investors' risk tolerance and market views. With structured products, what we are able to do is to change the level of risk or payout diagram to suit investors' needs and expectations," he said.
Kim said Citi was receiving strong demand for bespoke products that provided more flexibility than traditional investments. He estimated $1tr of structured product business was done globally in 2007, including $300bn Asia. In this region, he sees particular room for growth in areas including insurance-linked investments and retirement products.
On the Malaysian market, which was still relatively new and less evolved when it came to structured products, he said the "experience" (with regard to the performance of investments) with structured products during the financial crisis was "quite good", partly because customers here were generally conservative and were diversified with their investments at that time.