Abstract

The case discusses the turnaround of American multinational banking major Citigroup Inc. (Citi) under its CEO Jane Fraser (Fraser) (she). Ever since Fraser had become the CEO of Citi in March 2021, she had been grappling with some of the most pressing challenges at the bank such as outdated technology, a huge workforce, massive size, and a complex structure. Another major challenge for Fraser was that investors expected her to address the profitability issue and falling stock performance at Citi as it lagged behind its competitors. To fix the challenges at Citi, in September 2023, she announced a restructuring plan under which she aimed to increase profits, streamline operations, cut down workforce, and fix the deficiencies in data governance and risk management at the bank. In December 2024, Citi announced the results for its fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024 wherein it beat earnings expectations by garnering a profit with a net income of US$2.86 billion compared to a net loss of US$1.84 billion for the Q4 of 2023. Despite Citi posting profits, analysts stated that investors had lost faith in Fraser’s restructuring plan as Citi continued to lag behind competitors such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase in terms of share price, as of 2024. Amidst the challenges of investors losing confidence and falling stock price at Citi compared to its rivals, how will Fraser achieve a turnaround at the bank and achieve the new target she had set of reaching an ROTCE of between 10% and 11% by 2026?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Appreciate the unique strengths women bring to leadership roles.
• Analyze the issues and challenges women leaders face in leadership roles.
• Apply a turnaround framework to understand how women leaders respond differently in difficult times.

Keywords

Jane Fraser; Global financial crisis; Data management issues; Business transformation; Data governance; Risk management; Streamline operations; Poor risk controls; Federal government; Regulatory challenges; Project Bora Bora; Flattened management model; Leadership accountability; Michael Corbat; Titi Cole