It hired Kenneth Koo as the firm's chief executive, Rochelle Wei from JPMorgan to lead its futures unit and John Lu to head the onshore equities business, the source said.

Citigroup declined to comment.

Koo and Lu did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on LinkedIn. Wei did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Koo was previously Citigroup's chief representative in its mainland joint venture with Orient Securities that ended in 2019.

Bloomberg News first reported the new appointments on Thursday.

Last year, Citigroup applied for a mainland Chinese securities licence as part of its push to ramp up business in the market.

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)