Citigroup plots high street Egg branches

Egg, the world’s biggest standalone online bank, is planning to launch high street branches following Citigroup’s £575m acquisition of the brand from Prudential.

Citi UK consumer group chief executive Surinder Singh says it will increase its high street network and is looking at opening Egg-branded branches. It will also add current account and wealth management products to Egg’s portfolio. The combined entity quadruples Citi’s existing UK consumer base.

Citi has just six retail bank branches and 100 consumer finance branches in Britain. However, speaking to Marketing Week, Singh reveals the network will increase, particularly in London and the South-east.

He says Egg enjoys an enviable customer service record, which he wants to expand into the high street. “We will add a physical footprint to that customer service,” he says. “Egg customers will have three major [points of]

distribution: branch, online and phone,” adds Singh. “Citi branches or Egg-branded branches, we’re now looking at that.”

Management is identifying how it can integrate the Citi name into Egg, he says.

Egg was founded in 1998 and it has more than three million customers. Its products and services currently include credit cards, personal loans, savings accounts, mortgages and insurance. Citi’s British consumer business services around 1 million customers, primarily in the wealth management market and offers current, savings and foreign currency accounts, credit cards, investments, offshore banking, personal loans and mortgages.