The world's largest financial services company Citigroup has said that it regards Asia as a key market and the region's rising living standards are likely to shore up the profits of the group's consumer business.

Speaking to Financial Times, Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Citibank Asia Pacific, said the 'opportunity in Asia is amazing.'

Vaswani told FT that Asia, home to a third of the world's population, is witnessing a 'steady rise in consumerism.'

Buoyed by the region's growing middle class and strong economic fundamentals, Citigroup's consumer business sees it profits from the region doubling to 20 per cent in a few year's time.

Vaswani said Citibank would focus on areas such as credit cards for which it is the largest issuer in the region but with a market share of only 6 per cent.

Vaswani told FT that Citibank's strong presence in the credit card sector may force smaller companies to exit.

"The larger we get in credit cards, the more difficult it is to catch up with us, " said Vaswani.

Besides Citibank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank are also bullish on the region's business prospects. Both StanChart and HSBC had evinced plans to expand their businesses in Asia.