So it's not a blip. Following HSBC, Citi too has created a senior banking role dedicated to the Belt and Road Initiative as Western banks step up their efforts to splice their operations into China's grand inter-regional blueprint and, perhaps, ingratiate themselves more with Beijing.
On Thursday Citi said it had appointed Beibei Li as head of banking and origination for Belt and Road in Asia, having already been the only external global coordinator bank on Bank of China’s $10 billion Belt and Road multi-currency international bond issue in April.
That's after Mukhtar Hussain started his similarly new-fangled role as HSBC's head of Belt...