I got a tour of Citi’s new wealth hub in Singapore for high-net-worth clients, a 30,000-square-foot space with ‘garden pods’ for meetings. Look inside.

Global investment bank Citi has opened a 30,000-square-foot wealth hub on Singapore’s Orchard Road, the city-state’s glitzy luxury shopping thoroughfare.

The Citi Wealth Hub on Orchard Road, Citi’s largest wealth hub globally, was created to cater to the bank’s Citigold and Citigold Private Clients, who must have at least 250,000 Singapore dollars ($186,000) and SG$1.5 million ($1.1 million) in investable assets respectively. 

The idea is to bring together Citi’s Singapore-based relationship managers and wealth specialists in a central location where they can advise these clients on building their wealth, according to a Citi spokesperson. 

While Citi doesn’t disclose its numbers of Citigold and Citigold Private Clients, there’s no shortage of wealthy potential clients in Singapore.

The city-state is home to 3,732 ultra-high-net-worth individuals, or individuals worth at least $30 million, according to Knight Frank’s 2021 Wealth Report.

In the 2021 Global Financial Centres Index that ranks global financial centers, Singapore ranked fifth overall after New York, London, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

“Citi has an enormous opportunity to serve the growing affluent segment in Singapore,” Brendan Carney, CEO of Citibank Singapore Limited and Global Consumer Banking, said in a statement announcing the opening of the wealth hub in December. 

I recently got a tour of the Citi Wealth Hub, which spans 30,000 square feet across four floors. The seventh floor is dedicated to the Citigold Centre for Citigold clients, who must have at least SG$250,000 ($186,000) in assets.

Clients are greeted by a sleek reception area with fresh flowers. Like everywhere else in Singapore right now, everyone is required to check in with contact tracing app Trace Together.

The Citigold Centre is a large glass-walled atrium with meeting pods, a cafe, and an abundance of greenery.

Ministry of Design, the interior design firm responsible for the space’s biophilic design, refers to the atrium as a “Banking Conservatory.”

It certainly didn’t feel like any bank I’d been in before.

Instead of tellers or conventional meeting rooms, there are “garden pods” where clients can meet with their wealth managers.

Each pod is set up with a round table, four chairs, and a screen where a relationship manager can advise the client using a larger screen instead of a laptop or tablet.

Source: Citi

A free cafe serves Lavazza coffee, TWG tea, and chocolate bon bons from local pastry chef Janice Wong.

Source: Citi

And there are other nooks throughout where clients can meet with their relationship manager or just lounge with a coffee.

Source: Citi

The most exclusive part of the wealth club is the Citigold Private Client Centre on the eighth floor.

To become a Citigold Private Client, you must have investable assets of at least SG$1.5 million, or about $1.1 million. 

These clients gain access not only to the wealth hub in Singapore, but to a dedicated relationship manager who consults with a team of specialists, including portfolio counselors and mortgage specialists, to best advise the clients.

The Citigold Private Client Centre is a smaller, intimate space, filled with small meeting nooks – and still plenty of greenery.

Source: Citi

From this area, Citigold Private Client members can order something from the cafe with one of the staff and have it delivered to them.

Source: Citi

The wealth hub has 30 client advisory rooms that are named after national trees and flowers of countries where Citi has a presence.

Source: Citi

The Citi employees who work at the wealth hub occupy the sixth floor.

Plastic dividers separate individual workspaces in the plant-filled office.

The wealth hub can house more than 300 relationship managers and wealth specialists, but in Singapore, only 75% of a company’s employees are currently allowed to be in the office at one time.

Source: The Straits Times

My tour of the Citi Wealth Hub made it clear that the luxe space was designed for a world where in-person meetings and events were the norm.

During my tour, the Citi spokesperson emphasized that the wealth hub was meant to bring clients together with their relationship managers and wealth specialist for in-person rather than online meetings.

The initial plan was also to hold seminars and talks with business leaders, according to the Citi spokesperson. Right now, the only events are online.

In the pandemic, people have grown more accustomed than ever to virtual meetings, and in-person events have become much more limited.

Still, Singapore is likely closer to a return to in-person normalcy than most other countries, as the city-state has contained the virus and reported only 30 deaths throughout the pandemic.