(Bloomberg) --Citigroup Inc. is preparing for a wave of job cuts as Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser restructures the Wall Street giant to operate from five main businesses.
The company will no longer have three regional chiefs overseeing its business in about 160 countries around the world, according to a statement Wednesday. At least four of Fraser's senior deputies got new roles in the shakeup, and the firm is looking for a head of banking, which includes oversight of the investment-banking unit.
The moves will result in a number of job cuts, though the company doesn't yet have firm targets for how many employees will be affected, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel information.
These are not decisions that have been taken lightly. We'll be saying goodbye to some very talented and hard-working colleagues who have made important contributions to our firm.
"These are not decisions that have been taken lightly," Fraser said in a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. "We'll be saying goodbye to some very talented and hard-working colleagues who have made important contributions to our firm."
The firm is scrapping its two longtime core operating units, one of which focused on institutional clients while the other housed the firm's consumer offerings.
Citigroup will now focus on five main operating units, including a services unit led by Shahmir Khaliq, a trading division headed by Andy Morton and a US personal-banking division under Gonzalo Luchetti. Peter Babej will lead the firm's banking division on an interim basis, while Andy Sieg is set to join the firm later this month from Bank of America Corp. to lead Citigroup's wealth offerings.
All five men will be on Fraser's executive management team, which will expand to 19 people. That includes Ernesto Torres Cantu as head of international, while Sunil Garg continues to lead North America.
Fraser, who will discuss the restructuring at an investor conference Wednesday, has been seeking to streamline Citigroup's sprawling global operations, which employ 240,000 people. But the effort has so far failed to convince investors.
Shares of the company rose 1.3% to $42.24 at 9:32 a.m. in New York. The stock is still down roughly 40% since Fraser took over in early 2021, more than double the decline of any major US rival in that period.
"I know many of you share my frustration that we are seriously underestimated as a bank," Fraser said in the memo. "These changes to how we operate will accelerate our work to become the winning bank we all know Citi can be."
(Updates with Fraser's comments starting in fourth paragraph.)
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