Office address: 388 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10013
Website: citigroup.com
Year established: 1812
Company type: banking
Employees: 229,000+ (global)
Expertise: investment banking, capital markets and advisory, securities services and custody, wealth and private banking, asset management and alternatives, treasury and trade solutions, foreign exchange and derivatives, corporate and commercial lending
Parent company: N/A
Key people: Jane Fraser (CEO), Nadir Darrah (chief auditor), Sunil Garg (head of NA), Mark Mason (CFO), Anand Selvakesari (COO), Andy Sieg (head of wealth), Sara Wechter (CHRO)
Financing status: shareholder-owned company
Citigroup is a major bank based in New York that serves companies, governments, and investors. It runs trading, capital markets, and investment banking businesses across 94 markets worldwide. Citi moves nearly $5 trillion daily, while managing wealth for institutional and US personal clients.
Citigroup's origins began in 1812 after City Bank of New York was chartered to help the city rival older financial centers. The charter followed a long political battle involving merchants aligned with President James Madison and supporters of Vice President George Clinton.
Samuel Osgood became the first president, and Clinton's allies held almost half the board seats. That small New York bank later evolved over 200 years into the institution now known as Citi.
The bank opened a branch in Panama in 1904 at the US government's request and then expanded further. The National City Company sold bonds to ordinary investors, which helped fund companies and governments beyond Wall Street.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the bank built a broad New York branch network. It helped customers through the Great Depression and World War II, when women made up 43 percent of its almost 10,000 employees.
After 1945, the bank backed European rebuilding, financed major transport projects and expanded into the Middle East and Africa. In the 1960s and 1970s, it launched negotiable CDs, grew consumer banking and introduced ATMs for 24‑hour access.
From the 1980s, Citi expanded wealth and private banking services, including Citigold in Hong Kong. In 1998, a major merger created Citigroup, which later managed through the 2007–2008 crisis and reshaped its business mix.
It also supported the International Paralympic Committee through global sport partnerships. In 2021, Jane Fraser became Citi's CEO.
Citi has recently renewed its focus on investment banking under Viswas "Vis" Raghavan as head of banking. Since his arrival, the firm has hired at least 10 senior JPMorgan deal‑makers to strengthen M&A, equity capital markets, and technology coverage. This supports Jane Fraser's broader restructuring plans.
At the same time, Citigroup is pushing for growth in China as cross‑border activity increases. It has trimmed some consumer and technology roles, yet remains focused on Chinese companies expanding overseas and international clients. It's also pursuing a securities license and building on its existing capital markets permissions.
Citi offers a wide range of investment solutions that combine global reach and institutional‑grade platforms:
Citigroup also supports clients through its liquidity, risk, and cross‑border solutions that link investing to daily operations. Its global network and platforms help institutions and wealthy clients manage complex portfolios across markets.
Citigroup says that it aims to be a merit‑based workplace where people feel included and engaged. The bank says this culture supports its vision, expressed through these core fundamentals:
According to Citigroup, the firm offers benefits that support personal, professional and financial well‑being. Global opportunities, flexible work, and other resources help employees thrive in daily life:
Citigroup also has a $1 trillion sustainable finance goal through 2030 to support a low‑carbon, inclusive economy. It also targets net zero emissions by 2050 while helping clients with their own transitions.
Jane Fraser is chair of the board and CEO of Citigroup Inc. Fraser has spent more than 20 years at Citi in senior roles across its consumer and institutional businesses. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MA in economics from Cambridge University.
Citigroup's executive management team includes these key leaders and roles:
Together, these executives guide Citigroup's strategy, people, and day‑to‑day operations. Their decisions shape client service and long‑term shareholder returns.
Citigroup is using its global wealth arm to spot rich clients shifting assets from the US to the UK. Citi US stays central because those clients still need cross‑border advice, lending and portfolio management between American and British markets. This shift helps the bank grow international wealth revenue and refine its strategy for serving mobile, ultra‑wealthy families.
Elsewhere in Citi's ongoing transformation story, Citigroup hired outside counsel to review concerns about Andy Sieg, its head of Wealth. After the probe, the bank kept him in the role.
CEO Jane Fraser links that decision to strong results in the wealth unit and a broader turnaround that’s nearing its final phase. The bank also continues flexible work policies and sees clients more active in capital markets, which supports its long‑term wealth growth plans.
Rock-bottom interest rates have fueled the biggest borrowing binge on record, and even billionaires with enough cash to fill a swimming pool are loathe to sit it out.
The bank is planning to hire more than 500 advisers in its traditional brokerage business in coming years, bringing the total in that unit to 1,000.
Nasdaq Inc. has formed a joint venture with Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to establish a trading venue for shares of closely held companies.
The bank's new offering puts it into competition with robo-advisers, discount brokerages and some big-bank peers.
The bank's employees will have the option of working from home at least part time, an executive said, setting it apart from others who are taking a more hard-line approach, like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
The bank hasn't set a date for returning to the office. Employees can start applying for hybrid work once local pandemic rules allow them to return full-time to the office.
The bank is forming a new digital assets group inside its burgeoning wealth management unit, and will help clients invest in cryptocurrencies, stable coins and non-fungible tokens.
The banks told U.S. employees they'll receive a floating paid day off to mark the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., which President Biden signed into law Thursday.
An executive at Citi, which acted as transfer agent for the conversion of four Dimensional Fund Advisors mutual funds into ETFs this week, expects many more such switches.
Gov. Greg Abbott signs a pro-oil and gas bill in the state's latest fight against ESG investing.
CEO Jane Fraser cites the bank's push to expand its wealth management offerings around the globe, but says Citi will structure compensation so the bank's shareholders will have more power than the wealth managers.
IBM, First Solar, and DuPont among the companies pressured by shareholders this year to pledge diversity changes.
Christian Habitz and Sarah Damsgaard's firm, Invictus, has partnered with Dynasty Financial and will have offices in Chicago, Miami and Milwaukee.
Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown challenged the executives 'to be as good to the American people as the nation has been to you.'
With the benchmark equity gauge near its all-time high, short interest in the $357 billion ETF is rising.
