NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) - Citigroup C.N hired Bernal Vargas from JPMorgan Chase JPM.N to lead its equity capital markets division in North America, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Monday.

Vargas will be based in New York. He was most recently the head of Americas cash equity sales at JPMorgan, according to the memo signed by Doug Adams, Citi's global co-head of equity capital markets. Vargas previously worked at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.

He will join later this year, the memo added, without specifying a date.

Citigroup's head of banking, Viswas Raghavan, has been announcing high-profile hires as the bank expands its investment banking business and revenue.

Citi hired David Friedland from Goldman Sachs as co-head of North America investment banking coverage. It also recruited two executives from JPMorgan for its financing business. The lender plans to raise its investment banking headcount in Japan by 10% to 15% over the next year and make new hires in Australia.

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, editing by Lananh Nguyen and Rod Nickel)

((tatiana.bautzer@tr.com; Mob: +1-646-2397968; Reuters Messaging: tatiana.bautzer.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net/))