On Monday, March 1st, Ms Fraser takes over as Chief Executive of the third-biggest bank in the U.S. Ms Jane Fraser, the first woman to run a major U.S. bank, now has the task to reinvigorate the $2.3 trillion giant. She wants to simplify Citigroup Inc., the original megabank. Unlike her predecessors, she comes to the job when Citigroup is relatively under the radar.
She will have to juggle responding to the regulators’ concerns, an expensive, multiyear project with a reappraisal of the bank’s strategy. Ms Fraser has already launched a “refresh” she hopes can simplify the bank inside and out, making it easier to run and improve.
Citigroup, which once used to be the world’s largest financial-services firm, struggles to keep up with competitors. While Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are hitting new highs in market value, Citigroup’s is about half of it was in 2006. It was once roughly double that of other big banks; its profit and revenue have now been lapped by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. Just last fall, regulators ordered the overhaul of vast systems underpinning its sprawling operations, raising questions about the bank’s complexity anew.
