Citibank Argentina is a

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

and financial services company operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

. Its banking operations are the tenth largest in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

.ABA: ranking
In October 2016, Citibank reached an agreement to sell its retail banking operations in Argentina to Banco Santander Río.

Overview

Citibank Argentina was established in 1914 as the Buenos Aires branch of the

National City Bank of New York Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

, and the first of any United States bank in Argentina. The bank remained a secondary name in Argentine banking; but earned renown for the quality of its services: its Paylink payment processing network made it the first bank in Argentina to earn an

ISO 9000 The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 90 ...

(1997), and in 2002, Citiservice y Citiphone Banking earned the institution an

ISO 9002 ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

certification.Citi en Argentina
The company has sponsored a number of local programs to encourage reading among children. The president of Citicorp Argentina during the 1990s, H. Richard Handley, had been raised in Argentina with the chairman of Citigroup at the time,

John S. Reed John Shepard Reed is the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. He previously served as chairman and CEO of Citicorp, Citibank, and post-merger, Citigroup. He is the past chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's board o ...

, and obtained his support for the bank's lucrative participation in the 1990 sale of the state telephone concern

ENTel The ''Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones'' (National Telecommunications Enterprise, or ENTel) was an Argentine state owned company which had the monopoly on public telecommunications in the country until its privatization in 1990. Overview It ...

. Under bank president Carlos Fedrigotti, the bank acquired Buenos Aires-based Banco Mayo in 1998, stabilizing the insolvent institution's finances, and doubling Citibank's network. Losses registered during the

Argentine economic crisis Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

prompted an investigation in 2004 by the SEC, The bank issues an array of credit cards, including

Diners Club A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a comb ...

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

, and MasterCard (with

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

AAdvantage). Its acquisition of the Provencred lending bank in 1999 expanded Citibank's reach into the moderate income market, though Provencred was ultimately sold to the local Banco Comafi in 2009. Citibank Argentina maintains 60 branches, US$2.2 billion in deposits, and a loan portfolio of US$1.4 billion (around 3% of the domestic market in each).

Headquarters

The headquarters of Citibank Argentina, at Bartolomé Mitre 502, are in the heart of the Buenos Aires financial district, and face the offices of the

Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires The Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires ( es, Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires), better known as Banco Provincia, is a publicly owned bank in Argentina and the second-largest in the country by value of assets and deposits. History The prog ...

and

Banco Santander Río Banco Santander Argentina (formerly Banco Río de la Plata and then Banco Santander Río) is a commercial bank and financial services company and affiliate of the Santander, Cantabria (Spain) based Santander Group. Based in Buenos Aires, its bank ...

, two of its largest competitors. The building, notable for its

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

façade and main hall, was designed by Luis Aberastain Oro and Lyman Dudley, and completed in 1929. The building was also known in its early decades for the ''Club Americano'', a

social club A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...

located on the top floor, and popular with Buenos Aires' sizable American expatriate community.''Nuestra Arquitectura'' (January 1930): El nuevo edificio del National City Bank of New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Citibank Argentina Banks of Argentina Banks established in 1914 Citigroup Commercial buildings completed in 1929 Buildings and structures in Buenos Aires 1914 establishments in Argentina Argentine subsidiaries of foreign companies