Jaffna boy who conquered Financial city of London

Karu

Citi veteran Bernie Sinniah is stepping down after a 38-year run at the bank. Citi confirmed the retirement of the banker – who joined as a spot foreign exchange trader in Colombo and rose to become its global head of foreign exchange solutions – in an email to staff on Monday morning. He will leave by the end of the first quarter. 

 The bank’s global head of foreign exchange corporate sales Flavio Figueiredo said Mr Sinniah had shown “tremendous client focus” and “built great sales teams” during this time at the bank. “He has continuously looked for innovative ways of delivering client solutions and during the past two years he has worked tirelessly in developing the FX partnership with TTS (treasury and trade solutions) and building our eFX Solutions initiative which will drive our business into the future.”

Mr Sinniah has frequently been the public face of the bank’s vast currencies business. As part of Citi’s pitch to make it to the top of market-share rankings, Mr Sinniah famously featured in a 2013 poster as a cartoon character donning a red cape, yellow super hero body suit, and outside red underpants. “There is no try. Do! Get to number one” the lettering under ‘Bernieman’ declared. 

He will be replaced by Sam Hewson, who joined Cit’s markets graduate programme in 2003, and is currently co-head of western European corporate foreign exchange and has global responsibility for Citi’s risk management solutions businessIn his note, Mr Figueiredo said Mr Hewson’s “passion for the transformation of the corporate treasury function positions him well to drive Citi’s role as both an incumbent and transformative / disruptive agent in this rapidly changing landscape as fintechs increasingly impact traditional business models of corporate treasury”. 

Citi tops Euromoney’s global league tables for corporate foreign exchange. Mr Hewson will have responsibility for corporate and public sector clients.

– Financial Times – London

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