Citigroup to lay off 20,000 employees

Multinational bank Citigroup will be laying off 20,000 employees over the next two years as it posted its worst quarter in 15 years.

This was according to Citigroup CFO Mark Mason, according to a CNN report last week.

This will see the bank's worldwide workforce to shrink from 239,000 down to about 180,000 employees, as Citi's Mexican consumer division is also set to lay off about 40,000 staff.

In September, Citi announced a major restructure that involves eliminating its Personal Banking & Wealth Management and Institutional Clients Group management layers, as well as regional layers in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.

"These changes eliminate unnecessary complexity across the bank, increase accountability for delivering excellent client service, and strengthen our ability to benefit from the natural linkages that exist amongst our businesses, all with an eye toward delivering on our medium-term targets and our Transformation," CEO Jane Fraser said in September 2023.

Citi assured that it is committed to "retaining top talent" and supporting departing employees as the company transitions to a new model.

'Very disappointing' fourth quarter for Citigroup

The sweeping layoffs come as Fraser said they suffered a "very disappointing" fourth quarter in 2023, following a net loss of $1.8 billion.

Mason said among the contributors to this status was the $780 million charge due to severance and other related costs as a result of organizational structuring.

"While there are upfront costs to the organizational changes we're implementing, there are clear benefits that will allow us to reduce our future expense base, as well as simplify our bank and strengthen our focus on clients," the CFO said in a statement.

Despite the loss, however, Fraser said they made "substantial progress" in simplifying the organisation and executing their strategy in 2023.

"Given how far we are down the path of our simplification and divestures, 2024 will be a turning point as we'll be able to completely focus on the performance of our five businesses and our transformation," Fraser said in a statement.

"We remain confident in our ability to adapt to evolving capital and macro environments to reach our medium-term targets and return capital to our shareholders, whilst continuing the investments needed for our transformation."