(FORTUNE Magazine) – CITI's a curious breed of cosmopolitan. You can count on Citicorp for periodic faux pas at home, yet it seems in its element in the booming economies of Asia. Its consumer business transfers marketing innovations from East to West and back again. One reason Citi seems to travel so well: its stable of local management talent. Rana Talwar, 45, the irreverent Indian who heads the consumer bank in Asia, and more than half of the top managers are natives of the region. Over 100 employees who started out working for the bank in India have been exported to Citi's operations elsewhere in the world.

Many of the 16 nations that make up Citi's Asia-Pacific region (which excludes Japan) have seen a tidal wave of growth, but the consumer bank has been doing more than just riding it. In 1984 it had 600,000 accounts and customer deposits of $2 billion; today it has 3.7 million accounts and $12.5 billion. Earnings have grown at a 40% annual rate for five years. CS First Boston analyst Thomas Hanley estimates that Hong Kong's corporate and consumer business contributed $180 million to Citi's 1992 net income of $722 million. Not bad in a city where local competitors like Hongkong & Shanghai Bank and Bank of China literally tower over the business district. Citi has triumphed over adversity in India, Singapore, and other countries where local regulations have limited the number of branches it can open. In all of India -- where Citi had one of its characteristic slip-ups, playing a questionable role in a stock market scandal that came to light last year -- it has only six branches, while Singapore boasts three. Citi has trained drugstore clerks in Australia to accept deposits through a partnership with a local chain. Says Salomon Brothers analyst Diane Glossman: ''Citi is very successful finding alternative distribution methods. It has turned necessity into a virtue.'' Where other multinationals might have seen a straitjacket, Citi saw a segmentation strategy. To make the most of its 97 branches in the region, it concentrated on serving the wealthy. In 1986 it began so-called Citigold service, which offers people, usually with at least $100,000 on deposit, separate tellers, swanky premises, and personal attention within three minutes of entering a branch. They also get sophisticated investment options, such as multi-currency accounts that allow them to move deposits easily among currencies. Customers like Citigold: Most deposits range from $250,000 to $500,000. Citi loudly touts its ability to minister globally to this increasingly mobile clientele. A Citigold account holder from Singapore can walk into a Frankfurt branch, for instance, and cash a check of up to $5,000. Says Talwar: ''We thought we should make our 'globality' real to the customer.'' These accounts now make up about 45% of Asian consumer deposits. In late 1992, Citi began capitalizing on this Asian experience by importing Citigold to the U.S. and Europe. Behind the wealthy on Citi's list of targets comes the Asian middle class. These consumers want a house, a car, and the mortgages and auto loans to pay for them -- not to mention a credit card for everything else. This time Citi tapped its U.S. know-how, flying Asian bankers to its credit-card service center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for pointers on customer service and marketing from the heads of those divisions. The results? In 1988, Citibank's cards were available only in Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. Today the bank has two million accounts in 11 countries. By 1997,Talwar expects five million accounts to produce $200 million in profits, or 40% of the Asian consumer bank's projected net. Says an executive who worked with one of Citi's American competitors in Hong Kong for 13 years: ''No one is in the same league in establishing a global consumer bank.'' In a culture where ideas and people flow back and forth, that's the predictable result.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: FORTUNE CHART/SOURCES: COMPANY REPORTS, WORLDSCOPE CAPTION: CITICORP New York City