Trading down

IN INTERNATIONAL consumer banking, there is only one success story: Citibank. While dozens of institutions have tried to cross borders, Citi stands alone in making itself the bank of choice for wealthy businessmen around the world. It offers loans and deposit accounts in many currencies, and it has made pains to make sure that its branch in Mumbai will seem familiar to a customer just in from Bogota. The strategy has paid off handsomely. When the bank's parent company, Citicorp, announced net 1997 profits of $4.1 billion (before restructuring charges) on January 20th, it revealed that consumers in emerging markets now account for more than one-fifth of the money Citi earns.