Citi pays Andy Sieg $11.3M for first 3 months as wealth head

The size of award underscores Citi's desire to overhaul its struggling wealth division.

Citigroup Inc. paid new wealth management chief Andy Sieg $11.3 million for his inaugural quarter at the Wall Street bank.

Sieg, 56, arranged the so-called golden handshake before joining in late September from Bank of America Corp., with Citigroup guaranteeing him $11 million in cash and equity incentives on top of his salary, according to a filing Tuesday.

The award, amounting to the highest pro rata compensation for the bank’s top brass last year, underscores Citigroup’s desire to overhaul its struggling wealth division as it seeks to lift investor returns. The franchise has struggled to compete with US rivals including Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The year’s final months showed the work Sieg has ahead of him: Net interest income in that business line fell 10% to just over $1 billion in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. Since arriving, he has brought in former Bank of America colleague Don Plaus to run Citigroup’s private bank in North America.

The board increased chief executive Jane Fraser’s compensation package 6 percent to $26 million and slightly cut pay for CFO Mark Mason, to $13.3 million.

Markets chief Andy Morton got $18.5 million. Paco Ybarra, who became a senior adviser after stepping down as head of the now-disbanded institutional clients group, got $20 million, less than the prior year.