A Good Year For Wealth

Roger Bacon, Citi Private Bank's head of investment advisory, Asia North & Australia and Asia South, outlines why 2024 will be a good year for investors.

AS 2023 CAME to a close, Citi’s wealth business released its comprehensive Wealth Outlook for 2024 into the world. In essence, the expansive and extensively researched forecast concludes that 2024 will be a year of growth, whose good tidings will positively impact the landscape of global wealth in the years to come.

In this exclusive interview, Roger Bacon, head of investment advisory, Asia North & Australia and Asia South for Citi Private Bank, details the finer points of the report and explains why the bank is well-poised to guide investors to more fruitful horizons as the new year unfolds.

You’ve had a long and illustrious career in wealth management. What drew you to the industry and what keeps you so engaged in it?

My desire to work in financial services goes back as far as I can remember. And I joined the industry in 1993, so a long time ago! The first half of my career was on the asset management side. For the last 16 years, I’ve been in private banking. I see the two as intertwined and I’ve found both hugely fulfilling.

During my career, I’ve looked after institutions, endowments, ultra-high- and high-net-worth individuals, the mass-affluent and other retail clients. So, you could say I’ve covered the whole spectrum of clients globally. Whatever their level of wealth, I’ve loved working closely with them. Talking with clients about investments is a longstanding passion of mine.

Please give us some background on Citi’s wealth business.