CHINA appears to be at a crossroads after decades of rapid economic development. That keeps many people, especially those interested in investing in the world's second economy, wondering where the country is headed.

Stephen Bird, chief executive officer of Citigroup for the Asia-Pacific, sat down recently to discuss China's banking prospects with Shanghai Daily. He was in town for the annual International Monetary Conference, which brings together central bank governors and banking industry executives to review the world's financial condition.

Bird first joined Citigroup in Singapore in 1998 as the Asia-Pacific head for operations and technology. Now as the CEO for the entire region, he is responsible for the bank's business across 17 markets.

A graduate of the University College Cardiff, with an MBA in economics and finance, Bird has also worked as head of several regional markets and business lines, such as retail banking, credit cards and consumer finance.

Q1

Since the first International Monetary Conference took place in Paris in 1867, this is only the second time the meeting has been held in China. Why do you think Shanghai was chosen to host it this year?

I think that's a great example of how the world is focusing on China.

Given China is the second-largest economy in the world and accounts for more than half of global growth, it's very logical that everyone wants to understand the trends from here.

Last year, there was uncertainty in the world about where the US election would go and when the Eurozone crisis would end. This year, with some of that uncertainty removed, people are asking: What about China? Will China succeed in the re-mixing of its economy to lift consumption? That's something every newspaper and every commentator is debating.

President Xi Jinping has spoken of the five-year plan that envisions China becoming a large consumer economy less dependent on investment and exports. That is a very challenging change. China is signaling that it will continue to reform its interest rates, yuan internationalization and capital account convertibility.

Q2

How important is China to Citigroup and why?

China is one of our most important markets globally, not only because it's a large part of our income but also because we are a very future-focused bank. Today everyone wants to be in China. But we came to China 111 years ago, which shows our mentality of taking a very long-term view. We are trying to develop our global network so that we can serve emerging market champions.

China is creating champion companies like PetroChina, Huawei and Lenovo. We are trying to understand how to best serve those companies and we are already serving them in many markets around the world.

So China is important because of its size and impact on the global economy, it's a source of growth and it's a critical component of global linkage.

Q3

What's the plan for tapping into the Chinese market to expand Citi's business in a globalized economy?

We want to have multiple access points in the China market.

We have a 100 percent-owned Citibank business in the mainland, which is very important. We have 20 percent stake in China Guangfa Bank. We also have a history of investment in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, where we built very successful businesses together, such as credit cards.

We also operate very large hubs to serve other parts of the world, which we call "centers of excellence." We have one center in Dalian with 2,000 skilled people, and we have three others in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Zhuhai. The centers are very important utilities for our global operation, software development, call centers and processing work.

Our team in China has done a lot of work, such as creating China desks in other countries. So it's easy for our clients to go to those countries, where they can speak locally as if they are home, and bank locally as if they are home.

The multilayer framework we've built reflects our holistic view of China's contribution to the world economy.

Q4

You were with group CEO Michael Corbat in Beijing last month, visiting Vice Premier Ma Kai. In your opinion, what opinion does China's new leadership hold toward foreign banks like Citigroup?

We feel we've been very welcome as an active participant in the development of financial services in China. The government always encourages us to be actively engaged in the long-term development in financial services here, so we will continue to invest in the country.

Because of the type of bank we are - a global player - we have sense of where the world is going. There's great alignment between what Mike Corbat is trying to do with Citi globally and what we will do in Asia. Our unique model has become more valuable in the world today because the world is a more interconnected place.

China is speeding up its urbanization progress. The US took a hundred years to urbanize 50 percent of its population. Japan took 60 years. And China has taken 30 years with four times the population of the US.

Now we all live in cities where economic utilities are concentrated. About 30 percent of all world output is in 150 cities. We define our strategy as being a global urban bank. So cities are important to us. And China, for all of those reasons, is important to us.

We define our businesses in three ways. One of them is transaction services, which includes cash management, treasury services and security fund services.

Then there's securities and banking services. We have equity and bond underwriting, sales and distribution, capital markets, interest rate trading, and merger and acquisition advisory. We just advised China's largest-ever outbound M&A - the takeover of Nexen in Canada by CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corp).

The third business is our consumer business. China is building out that business. We have a growing branch banking network. We launched our own credit card in China last year, the first global bank to do so. The business is just starting up. It's a long journey, but we're very excited about it. We believe the Chinese market will become the largest consumer market in the world in terms of purchasing power parity by 2020. And that means lots of people will be spending with their credit cards.

Q5

What are the advantages of having a sole-brand credit card versus the co-branded card with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank?

Citibank has a lot of brand power in China. People like it.

The Chinese have been curious about foreigners since we first arrived 111 years ago. And we think they still are curious about foreigners and about what happens in America and Europe. That makes the Chinese great travelers. They're very curious about trends and novelty. Shanghai is a great example of that.

The Citibank credit card brings two new valuable propositions to the marketplace. We have higher rewards and special deals for our clients. And we have a travel product that allows you save up air miles, offered across Asia. That's a combination of services, product and branding.

We have a very good understanding of who are our target customers. We don't want to serve everybody. So we need to be very selective. We define our segments very carefully in terms of social demographics, like age groups, occupations, earnings and credit history.

If we target the right people, they will become valuable to Citibank. We want to sell our products to customers who value Citibank and want to stay with us for the long-term. And we are excited at the prospects of being the only global bank with a sole branded credit card offering in China.