Citi's Sieg sees rich clients pivoting from US to UK

Some of Citigroup Inc.’s wealthy clients are souring on the US and instead looking at the UK, even as Britain hikes taxes on its rich residents, according to one of the bank’s top executives.

“It’s a two-way trade in terms of clients in and out of the UK,” Citigroup global wealth head Andy Sieg said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Thursday in London. While some are exiting Britain, others are “looking at the US, and changes in the US, and thinking maybe the UK is the place where my kids might want to go to college and might want to spend more time.” 

The comments signal the growing fallout from US President Donald Trump’s America-first politics as his administration clashes with the nation’s elite colleges and targets foreign students. That’s leading to a recent spike in applications for British universities offering similar prestige. 

An influx of wealthy individuals diverting to the UK instead of the US would also mitigate the blow from the surge of ultra-wealthy residents exiting Britain. Keir Starmer’s Labour administration has brought in a series of higher taxes this year for well-heeled foreigners, as well as rich natives. 

One of the most controversial moves was scrapping a preferential tax regime for non-domiciled residents, or non-doms, with Labour going further than measures outlined last year from the then-ruling Conservative Party by exposing rich foreigners’ overseas assets to UK inheritance tax.

The UK government is betting that its changes to the regime, which allowed international investors and entrepreneurs to avoid levies on earnings from outside the UK, will bring about £33 billion ($45 billion) in extra taxes in coming years. A wave of think tanks are contesting those figures, however, warning of the threat to jobs and economic growth, while billionaires such as Checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz and Egypt’s richest man Nassef Sawiris have recently exited the UK.

“We see topics like the non-dom discussion very much on the mind of clients,” Sieg said.

Citigroup rival JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Thursday announced a new leader for its private banking arm in order to cater to clients who want to use its services across different continents, tapping David Frame to lead the business globally. 

JPMorgan’s private bank oversees more than $2.9 trillion in client assets and caters to the bank’s wealthiest customers. 

“He will focus on further enhancing our US and international private banking businesses, platform and services as our clients expand their reach across continents and generations,” Mary Callahan Erdoes, who leads JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management business globally, said in a statement announcing the move.  

Sieg, a longtime Bank of America Corp. executive, joined Citigroup in 2023 to help lead a turnaround of the New York-based firm’s wealth management business. Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser has embarked on a broader restructuring effort in recent years for one of America’s biggest lenders.

Returns and revenue have since risen at the business, with a focus on increasing investment volumes from clients, who include about a quarter of the world’s billionaires. Private banking recently posted first-quarter revenue of $2.1 billion, up 24% from the same period a year before. Sieg cited the UK as a territory where the unit is “growing strongly.”

“We haven’t reached our goal in terms of being number one in wealth management in the world,” he added. “But we have got one of the fastest-growing wealth businesses.”