Citi CEO Jane Fraser speaks at the Milken Institute 2022 Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. May 2, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc (CN) is in “active dialogue” to complete the sale of its Russian consumer business announced a year ago, Chief Executive Jane Fraser said on Monday.
“We sell our retail and commercial banking franchises locally and we have an active dialogue about that,” Fraser said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference.
Investors were concerned the sale was on hold due to economic sanctions imposed by western nations to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
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Fraser announced in April 2021 that Citi would divest its Russian consumer business along with a dozen other consumer companies in Asia and EMEA markets it said were too small to keep. Citi has since found buyers for many of these companies.
Fraser also said in the interview that Citigroup will continue to serve multinationals in Russia because they need the bank to close their businesses there.
“We have stopped attracting new business, new customers. We’re definitely downsizing our commitment, our business,” Fraser said. “But you’re like the captain who’s the last to leave the ship.”
Earlier in the day, Fraser said in a panel at the conference that Western countries’ use of sanctions as a weapon against Russia is prompting some of Citi’s international clients to explore new ways to conduct trade and finance.
In the Middle East, Fraser said, “you can hear customers there talking about they don’t trust the Western financial order, that going forward they’re going to put all their eggs in this basket, that they’re going to look elsewhere.”
Fraser added, “You must expect the fragmentation of the old global financial order and the acceleration of new venues.”
Citigroup is the most internationally diversified major bank headquartered in the United States. It provides trade finance for companies and wealth management for billionaires around the world.
“This arming of financial services is a very, very big deal,” Fraser said. “It will likely accelerate the recognition of emerging markets and the development of their domestic capital markets.”
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Reporting by David Henry in New York Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot
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