Here’s a statistical update to a previous blog posting,How To Break Open The Corporate Piggy Bank.

Citigroup’s CEO Vikram Pandit told theWSJ “If the [economic] trends continue, we’re going to have to keep up with the size in Asia and so these investments are going to be substantial”.  Are tears welling up in your eyes?  As a sales professional, don’t you love to hear such optimism?

As I pointed out in an earlier FASTalert (Citi – A Technology Spending Star Rising In The East), Citigroup is placing a big bet on Asia.  The bank now has more than 700 branches across Asia, and Mr. Pandit said that number will reach about 1,000 in three to four years.

U.S.Bancorp’s CEO Richard Davis likes “consistent, predictable, repeatable performance” with no surprises.  In describing the bank’s Q3’10 earnings performance, he says “… it may not be that exciting, because it doesn’t have a lot of unexpected outcomes, but it is one that we’re proud of and we’re excited to tell the story”.  ‘Old-fashioned’ banking (a phrase CEO Davis used several times during the earnings conference call) is a guiding principle at USB.

For U.S.Bancorp, financial performance has been anything but boring and unexciting.  Diluted EPS is up 88% year-to-date, and true to form, USB has not reversed loan-loss reserves to artificially boost earnings.  (See Bank Earnings Booming, But Don’t Fall Into The Trap!)  The top line is growing too; USB reported record revenues in the third quarter.

If you call on large banks, you might be breathing a sigh of relief as Q3’10 earnings are reported.  But, don’t stop at the headlines.  The “quality” of those booming earnings is likely dubious.

If you or your company has aspirations to grow your relationship with Citigroup, be prepared to go global and sharpen your retail banking business acumen.  Today, over 40% of Citi’s revenues come from Emerging Markets which include Latin America and Asia.  And Citi, who reported earnings yesterday, is signaling their intention to open the investment spending spigot to grow Emerging Markets even bigger, particularly in Asian retail banking.

Don’t let the asset sales trickling out of Citi Holdings, the bad bank holding tank, fool you.  Citicorp, the good bank, is poised to leverage its existing international muscle and build its retail banking base outside the U.S. in the fastest growing economies in the world.  Citi plans to use technology as a key marketplace differentiator.