In March 2022, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser delivered remarks during the bank’s first investor day in five years after COVID forced the event to go virtual. Citi faced weak performance, with its stock down during her tenure, trading below book value, and a prior costly operational error involving $900 million sent to the wrong place. Fraser acknowledged investor disappointment and said the bank needed urgent changes to reach its potential. She presented a recovery plan emphasizing crisp decision-making, disciplined execution, and measurable results. Her strategic priorities centered on becoming the leading partner for cross-border institutional needs, a global leader in wealth management, and a valued personal bank in the home market, with activities not supporting these goals subject to elimination. She also called for ending a culture of mediocrity.
"“We have an urgent need to address the issues that have kept our firm from living up to its full potential,” she said, then spoke bluntly: “It's frankly not a surprise that we've been outperformed by our peers and that we failed to meet the expectations of our investors.” She vowed to change how the bank was run, instilling crisp decision-making and real discipline on execution and delivering results."
"Fraser ticked through her recovery plan with the ruthless precision of a seasoned McKinsey consultant ( she's an alum). Her vision for Citi: to be the preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs; a global leader in wealth management; and a valued personal bank in our home market. Anything that didn't serve these purposes may end up on the chopping block. And the bank's culture of mediocrity had to change: “Good enough was good enough for far too long,” she said."
"To make matters worse, just hours before Fraser strode onstage for the bank's first investor day in five years, Citi had suffered another indignity: Two executives had caught COVID, and the entire event had gone virtual. Fraser was forced to deliver her remarks into a camera, eyes trained on a teleprompter in the largely empty auditorium."
"Citi was in a bad spot: Its stock had dropped 15% during her tenure, lagging behind the S&P 500's 10% growth. It was the only big U.S. bank trading below its book value. There also had been a humiliating blunder in which the bank sent $900 million to the wrong place and struggled to get it back."
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