Thunderbolt for the American giant. The New York group Citigroup plans to eliminate 20,000 net positions in the medium term worldwide, it said on Friday, engaged in a “major restructuring”, particularly internationally.
It had around 200,000 employees at the end of 2023, excluding retail banking in Mexico, a total which it therefore plans to increase to 180,000. During a conference call, Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason indicated that provisions made in the fourth quarter of 2023 covered approximately 7,000 job losses in 2024.
A change of strategy
In mid-September, the managing director, Jane Fraser, revealed that this transformation would be accompanied by a major reorganization of the hierarchical structure, the most important for the bank “in almost twenty years”. This led to a withdrawal of a number of international retail banking subsidiaries.
This measure includes listing its Mexican subsidiary Banamex, which provides services to individuals and SMEs, on the stock market. Overall, Citi is refocusing on institutional clients, private banking and wealth management, as well as credit cards, while remaining active in retail banking in the United States.
The shadow of a new crisis?
The largest American bank in 2006, Citigroup then had 325,000 employees. It suffered the full brunt of the 2008 financial crisis, weighed down by significant portfolios of risky assets, notably “subprime” loans.
More established abroad than its American rivals, it has also been more vulnerable to international crises, notably the invasion of Ukraine or the recent devaluation of the Argentine peso.