US Citigroup to Cut 300 Senior Managers... Accelerating Restructuring

Fraser Announces First Layoffs After September Restructuring Plan
Restructuring to Continue Until Next Year

U.S. major bank Citigroup is laying off more than 300 senior management personnel. This is part of a high-intensity restructuring pushed by CEO Jane Fraser.

On the 20th (local time), Bloomberg News, citing sources, reported that Citigroup decided to reduce staff two levels below the executive level and began notifying the affected employees from that day. This move is expected to result in layoffs of 10% of the total workforce at that level.

Citigroup stated in a press release, "Today, we shared with our colleagues the next phase of changes across many businesses and functions as we adjust Citigroup’s organizational structure to a new and simplified operating model. The measures to reshape the company involve difficult and significant decisions. However, we are confident that these are the right steps to align our organization with our strategy and to continue delivering excellent service to our clients."

Citigroup announced a large-scale restructuring plan last September to reduce costs and increase profitability. This layoff decision is the first dismissal action since the announcement of the September restructuring plan and is reported to be the largest scale in the past 20 years. Citigroup plans to focus on five sectors: trading, banking, services, asset management, and retail banking.

However, Citigroup had already been pursuing organizational slimming by laying off 7,000 employees from January to September this year and paying $650 million in severance.

Citigroup’s move toward intense restructuring is due to its weaker competitiveness compared to banks like JP Morgan and Bank of America (BoA). CEO Fraser, who took office in 2021, is under pressure to increase profitability and raise the stock price. Accordingly, she has carried out restructuring, including withdrawing from retail banking businesses in the Asia-Pacific region, including Korea, shortly after taking office. Citigroup plans to continue workforce restructuring across global markets through next year.

In a memo to employees, CEO Fraser said, "Building a winning bank requires tremendous dedication, effort, and resilience from each of us," and added, "We fully understand that we are asking a lot from our employees."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.