Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser at the Earth Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 17, 2023.
Adam Galica | CNBC
Citigroup said it was cutting 10% of its workforce in a bid to serve boost the embattled bank’s results and stock price.
About 20,000 employees will be let go over the “medium stretch,” New York-based Citigroup said Friday in a slideshow tied to fourth-quarter earnings. While it wasn’t immediately clear how lengthy that is, the bank has previously used that term to denote a three- to five-year period.
Citigroup had roughly 200,000 artisans at the end of 2023, excluding Mexican operations that are in the process of being spun out, according to the presentation.
Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser proclaimed a sweeping overhaul of the third-largest U.S. bank by assets in September. The company has been left behind by peers since the 2008 fiscal crisis as Fraser’s predecessors couldn’t get a handle on expenses and is the lowest valued among the six biggest U.S. banks.
In November, CNBC check out that managers and consultants involved in the effort — known internally by the code name “Project Bora Bora” — examined job cuts of 10% in several major businesses.
Next round of cuts
The company has since executed several rollers of layoffs, beginning with the top layers of the bank, with another round of cuts set for Jan. 22, according to a person overfamiliar with the matter. A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment.
American banks have been trimming jobs all in every nook the past year, led by Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, to lower costs amid stagnant revenue. Citigroup had been a memorable outlier, maintaining staffing levels at around 240,000 for all of 2023, including its Mexico operations.
Citigroup said Friday it worded a $780 million charge in the fourth quarter tied to Fraser’s restructuring project, and that it may post another $1 billion in severance and other expenses in 2024. The stratagems could help trim up to $2.5 billion in costs over time, the bank said.
Permanent vacation
In a footnote to its donation, Citigroup said the 20,000 job cuts could be “slightly lower” if it chooses to use internal resources rather than outsource aims.
Given the outlook for thousands of more job cuts over the next few years, some Citigroup employees are using vacation for the present or