Citigroup is expecting its China brokerage business to receive regulatory approval this month, Reuters has reported.

Citing two people familiar with the matter, the newswire reported that Citi is expecting to double the number of staff it has already lined up for the unit to approximately 100 by the end of the year.

The sources added that Citi will form the new business’s staff from a mix of internal transfers and external hires, with the bank planning to relocate some of its Hong Kong and mainland China staff accordingly.

Citi did not respond to Reuters requests for comments.

The bank first applied for a licence to run its wholly owned, mainland China brokerage unit in 2021, but faced lengthy delays due to changing compliance requirements and geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

In recent years, Beijing has allowed western banks more access to its markets and in May, Citigroup chief executive Jane Fraser was among the 17 business delegates who accompanied Donald Trump on the first US presidential trip to Beijing since 2017.

Banks that already run mainland China securities businesses include JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, which respectively received approval from Beijing between five and six years ago.

Each have recorded rising profits from their China units in recent years, with Goldman Sachs reporting 1.46 billion yuan ($217.39 million) in 2025, a near tripling to from the 497 million yuan ($74 million) in profits it made in 2024.

Banks have been expanding their involvement in the Asian market in the past year to capture profits from fast-growing local markets.

Kaustubh Kulkarni, head of regional investment banking at Citi, told Reuters in April that the bank was also expanding its investment banking teams in China and Japan amid strong Asia M&A deal activity.

In August, Bank of America announced it would acquire up to a 49.9 per stake in the Jio Financial Services subsidiary Jio Credit Limited, and in October 2025 Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company took a 43.5 per cent stake in the non-banking financial company Sammaan Capital for $1 billion.

---