Citi Australia chief executive Stephen Roberts said it would be business as usual following the announcement yesterday that Citi and Morgan Stanley had formed a global wealth management joint venture.Citi moves from 100 per cent ownership of Citi Smith Barney to 49 per cent of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.Retail wealth management businesses have become increasingly important for the distribution of a range of banking and investment banking products, including IPOs and other equity issues, hybrids, structured products, margin loans and managed funds.Roberts said Citi would deal with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in the same way as it had dealt with Citi Smith Barney. "Our ability to sell product is totally unchanged. I am confident that it will not be adverse in any way."There will be some changes. The joint venture will be able to buy equity research from Citi and from Morgan Stanley. But Roberts said Citi Smith Barney had always operated on a best of breed basis and customers were just as likely, for example, to be in the Macquarie cash management trust as the Citi product.Roberts said he expected most of the people at Citi Smith Barney to remain in place in the joint venture, given that Morgan Stanley has a negligible retail wealth management presence in Australia. "There are plenty of examples of banks and investment banks owning less than 100 per cent of their retail management businesses. Look at Goldman Sachs and JB Were. Some have as little as 20 or 30 per cent and it works well."