Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) said that it plans to hire up to one hundred new bankers as part of its renewed efforts to push into the Asia Pacific commercial banking market. Its rival, HSBC, is embarking on a strategy that emphasizes selling to smaller corporate clients with a greater variety of products.

Citigroup and HSBC are both global banks, and they have realized that it is better to focus on small to medium sized clients because of a decreasing number of Chinese state owned companies with IPOs that are worth more than $10 billion. The deals with these companies had sustained investment banks in the region for the past ten years.

The additional 100 bankers represent a 10 percent increase in Citigroup’s Asia Pacific commercial banking team. The company plans to use the boost in staff to provide additional services, such as foreign exchange and cash management, to firms that have annual sales between $10 million and $500 million.

According to Ashish Bajaj, the head of Citigroup’s Asia Pacific commercial banking, said that the goal of this plan is not to just add numerous new clients in the area, but rather to gain more shares of the wallets of clients from the commercial banking sector who have cross border businesses. Citigroup will offer these clients more loans, FX, and cash and trade products.

Bajaj also stated that Citigroup is the joint global coordinator with Luye Pharma Group’s IPO this month. This relationship came from a commercial banking affiliation with the Chinese pharmaceutical company. The head executive hopes that Citigroup will involved itself in these kind of deals more often in the future.

Citigroup stated that it also plans to send more suppliers to major firms in Asia, including Tata Motors in India and Lenovo Group in China. The company will also focus on building relationships with start-ups that show the potential to grow into large corporations.

For example, Just Dial Ltd, a search engine in India, is one of Citigroup’s commercial banking clients. It started out with only $1,000 in capital in 1996. But the company now has a market value of $1.9 billion last year.

The market for small and mid sized companies is growing at a rapid rate, and the banking revenue from these emerging markets is slated to grow at 20% per year. By 2015, the revenue from these markets could rise as high as $350 billion, a significant increase from the $150 billion in 2010.

Citigroup launched its commercial banking unit as a separate unit in 2012. It currently operates in 32 countries of the 100 countries that the company has a presence in. The company currently employs about 4,000 workers.

Citigroup’s commercial banking revenues in the region in Asia were $1 billion last year.

Although it is difficult to accurately draw comparisons between different banks, HSBC’s revenues greatly exceeded those of Citigroup’s. Its profits were $4.4 billion last year.

Citi also announced that it will expand its commercial banking business to Vietnam, and will add 18 staff members to the 600 already there. The company plans to direct its attention to South Korea and Taiwan, who both have manufacturing ties in the Southeast Asian country.

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