Citigroup will give a type of "regional" management structure a go, at least for its businesses in Asia and the Pacific.Four regions, with local CEOs, will replace the traditional management structure (with functional reporting lines through to New York).One will cover Japan, the second North Asia (covering China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea) and a third South Asia (including Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka).The fourth region will be Southeast Asia-Pacific, covering Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam. Piyush Gupta will lead this regional cluster.Whether the concept of regional management will percolate through to a national level isn't clear at this stage.Citigroup in Australia briefly experimented with the concept for some months in 2004 when Ahmed Fahour, keen to leave his job with Citi's alternative investments group in New York and work here, talked head office into the idea. Citi's business heads in Australia did their best to ignore the innovation, with no follow up appointment made once Fahour quit the bank (to become Australian regional CEO for National Australia Bank).Citi's four regional CEOs will report to Asia Pacific chief Ajay Banga, who will still run the group's institutional banking business. Banga told the Financial Times: "Rather than concentrate solely on management process, these changes are designed to help foster an atmosphere of collaboration among senior regional executives so that we can better serve clients with our products."Banga told Reuters: "I want the client not to have to navigate Citigroup. I want us to navigate Citigroup and bring it together at the front end for them, and that's why you need to bring all the organisations and geographies together under one cluster head."