Arif Usmani started his career with Citi Pakistan in 1981 as a Unit Head for the Corporate Banking Group and has since then held a number of senior positions before taking over as Citi Country Officer (CCO) and Managing Director for Pakistan earlier this year.

Arif has more than 26 years of banking experience- majority of which have been spent with Citi across several geographies and disciplines. Between 1989 and 1994, Arif was on secondment with Saudi Arabia’s second largest bank SAMBA in Riyadh as Division Head where he managed some of the largest borrowing relationships in the region.

In 1994 Arif relocated to Citi in the Asia Pacific region, where for five years he held a number of critical Risk Management positions in different countries including HongKong and Singapore .

Arif then moved as Citi Country Officer to Slovakia where he is credited with greatly developing the business before taking over as Country Head Citi Nigeria and Regional Head West Africa- the latter role involving management of the Citi Franchise in Nigeria, Cote D’ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of Congo as well as Senegal.

In 2003, Arif moved back to SAMBA Financial Group as the Chief Risk Officer, a position he gave up after being offered to manage the Citi franchise in Pakistan in 2008.

Arif has won several awards over the course of his career including the Managing director’s Performance Award for 3 years in a row for his role in SAMBA. He is also considered a leading authority on risk within Citi and is regularly called upon to lead training sessions for Citi training centres around the world.

Arif enjoys Golf, classical music and reading- he is married with 2 children.