Shirish Apte, 56, and Stephen Bird, 42 will be the CEOs for Asia-Pacific, while Shengman Zhang will be chairman of Citibank in the region, effective immediately, Indian American Vikram Pandit announced on Monday. 

Ajay Banga, held the title of Asia-Pacific CEO but he left the firm on June 19 to become president and CEO of MasterCard.

Apte will be in charge of South Asia, which includes India, Australia and New Zealand, and Bird will be in charge of North Asia. The two will have joint responsibilities for Asia-Pacific's overall performance, strategy and execution. 

Bird, Apte and Shengman, will report to Pandit. 

In an internal note to the staff Pandit said: "We see tremendous opportunities in many of these fast-growing markets in Asia-Pacific and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)." 

Apte, 56, moves to Asia-Pacific after guiding Citi in other emerging markets. He served as CEO of Citi's Central and Eastern Europe region. 

The bank has been under a constant barrage of attack for its US operations and has been continuing to put forth Asia as its star, stable growth-engine. 

In 2008, Asia-Pacific contributed $15.6 billion in revenues, or about a third of the group's $52.8 billion revenues. Citi operates in 18 countries in the region.