CitiFinancial, which took the lead in financing four-wheelers in the country a few years back, has discontinued its auto loan financing activity. Kickstarting the restructuring of its retail operations, Citigroup has decided to shut down around 280 branches of CitiFinancial in India.

The closure of branches resulted into downsizing of CitiFinancial's work force from 3,000 employees to around 2,000 in the current fiscal.

"It is not necessary that we have to go by the developments in the US. We can take an independent decision here about the future of CitiFinancial. The range of options here include getting a partner to run the business," he said.

The bank is also currently re-locating CitiFinancial branches in certain geographical areas and shutting down outlets in some locations.On January 16, Citi had announced that it will realign into two businesses, Citicorp and Citi Holdings, to optimise the company's global businesses and seek profitable opportunities.

Accordingly, Citi Holdings will be made up of brokerage, retail asset management, local consumer finance and a special assets pool - whose management will focus on tightly managing risks and losses, and maximising the value of these assets.

Citicorp will be a relationship-focused global bank. It will include 'core' Citi properties and have a presence in high-growth emerging markets around the world.

The restructuring of CitiFinancial in India was inevitable due to financial constraints although the bank's management currently has no plans to exit the consumer finance business.