How is CEO Jane Fraser Raising Performance at Citgroup?

Jane Fraser has been clear with her expectations at the start of the new year: it’s time to up the game. 

The Citigroup CEO, who joined the bank in early 2021, told employees that she expects performance to increase in an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. 

In the document, titled ‘The Bar is Raised’, Jane signalled the need for cultural change at the bank, saying that she wants to see “the last vestiges of old, bad habits fall away and a more disciplined, more confident, winning Citi to emerge in 2026”.

According to Bloomberg, Jane wrote: “We are not graded on effort. We are judged on our results.”

She added: “Every one of us has to adopt a more commercial mindset: asking for the business, competing for the full wallet and not settling for a secondary role or missed opportunity.”

Citigroup, which employs over 220,000 people, reported generally strong fourth-quarter 2025 results across most of its core business lines. 

Expanding on the need for greater performance, Jane told employees: “That evolution is a direct consequence of the higher expectations that we’ve set and the standard required to meet them consistently.”

Citigroup’s streamlining strategy

While pointing to the need for greater performance and rigour, Jane also hinted at possible job cuts or reorganisation as the bank heads into 2026. 

She wrote: “Some roles will change, new ones will emerge and others will no longer be required.”

This is in line with ongoing transformation at the bank to streamline processes, maximise efficiencies and upgrade technology. 

In early 2024, Jane announced that this evolution would include cuts to 20,000 jobs, or about 10% of its global staff, over a two-year period, saying it would be a “turning point” for the firm. 

The restructuring programme, first made public in 2023 aimed to eliminate layers of bureaucracy at the bank, streamlining layers of management and some of its business units.

In a January 2024 press release reporting net losses for the fourth quarter 2023 of US$1.8bn on revenues of US$17.4bn, Jane said: “While the fourth quarter was very disappointing due to the impact of notable items, we made substantial progress simplifying Citi and executing our strategy in 2023. 

“We restructured around five core, interconnected businesses to align our organisation with our strategy and to provide greater transparency into their performance.”

Using AI to maximise performance

In the latest memo, Jane said technology would play a key role in the ongoing streamlining work, writing: “Over time, we can expect automation, AI and further process simplification to reshape how work gets done.”

This approach is picking up pace across several financial institutions, as leading banks look to AI and other tools to transform operations workflows. 

Jane previously touched on how significant an advantage AI provides in an October 2024 earnings call, revealing how the bank's AI implementation has generated significant time savings, freeing up 100,000 hours of weekly capacity for software developers.

She explained that close to 180,000 of Citigroup’s employees globally have access to the bank's internal AI platforms.

Other sector leaders banking on AI include JPMorgan Chase, which has intensified its AI deployment efforts under CEO Jamie Dimon. 

The bank has given employees access to AI technology for drafting annual performance reviews, aiming to streamline hiring and performance processes. 

In late 2024, Wells Fargo announced the creation of a dedicated AI lead role, signalling its intent for the technology. 

Charlie Scharf, Chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, said: "Generative and agentic AI will reshape competitive dynamics across every industry, and we are embracing these tools as we have embraced robotic process automation and machine learning for years.

"The past year has been exciting as our world-class technology team has led us in building the technical foundation, training over 90,000 employees, deploying AI tools to over 180,000 desktops and we are now beginning to implement use cases more broadly."