Citigroup’s annual promotion round is set to be 75pc smaller in 2024, in an attempt to keep a lid on costs following a year of restructuring. The US bank might elevate only 2,000 employees in it’s year-end promotions later this month, citing people familiar with the matter. That’s only a quarter of the 8,000 it has promoted in previous years.
Citi has recently emerged from a radical restructure as chief executive Jane Fraser looked to right the course of the bank. The overhaul simplified Citi’s business around five core divisions and slashed thousands of management jobs.
Each year, Citigroup and other Wall Street banks unveil new classes of managing directors. Promotions also usually include moves up the ranks from analysts through to directors. However, promotions this year are only likely for those taking on new responsibility or roles. Pay rises for newly promoted staff are also likely to be capped at 15pc.
“Citi made firm-wide changes to our organisational structure earlier this year, which included promotions and other role changes for a substantial number of colleagues, and managers have received guidance to take that effort into consideration at year-end,” a spokesperson for the bank said.
“That said, promotions are a key part of our talent strategy and while our year-end process is still underway, the notion that we will see a significant decline in promotions across the bank or other re-levelling is false,” they added.
Citigroup has looked to balance cost-cutting with growing important divisions that have lagged its rivals’, including investment banking and wealth management. Project ‘Bora Bora’, as the overhaul was known included the marquee hire in February of former JPMorgan dealmaker Vis Raghavan as head of banking. Bank of America’s Andy Sieg joined in September 2023 to lead the wealth management unit.
Since his appointment, Raghavan has continued to shake up Citigroup’s investment bank. He has appointed key dealmakers to a new executive committee and hired former JPMorgan equity capital markets head Achintya Mangla to head a new financing division.
Citigroup said last year that it planned to eliminate around 20,000 jobs from its global headcount of 229,000 employees, as part of its overhaul. It has cut some senior debt capital markets bankers in London, despite a banner year for the unit. Its head of ECM in Europe, Suneel Hargunani, left after more than 20 years at the bank.
However, Citi has also handed out retention bonuses to dozens of staff within its wealth unit, Bloomberg reported.
Citigroup has appointed BlackRock managing director and senior portfolio manager Kate Moore to be the chief investment officer of its wealth business. Moore is due to join the company in February. She will oversee the chief investment office of Citi Wealth, as well as its global investment committee and sustainable investing team.
Moore replaces Steven Wieting who became interim CIO for Citi’s wealth group after David Bailin left the bank in May after a 15-year career at Citi. Moore arrives at Citi after eight years at BlackRock. Most recently, she was head of thematic strategy for the fund giants $50bn global allocation business.
Prior to that, she was chief investment strategist for JPMorgan’s private bank and worked in senior roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. She is the latest in a string of senior hires made by Citi as part of wealth boss Andy Sieg’s revamp of the business. Since he took over Citi’s wealth business in September 2023, Sieg has tapped ex-employer Merrill Lynch for recruits including global head of investment solutions.
Citi boss Jane Fraser has flagged wealth management as a key growth area for the wider business. But the bank has lagged behind JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and other rivals.
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