Dear Story 442:
I’ve been thinking about your post and the comment you made about Cards’ revenue. Moving Retail Banking into Wealth last year gave [REDACTED] a bigger business, a more attractive P&L, and made it so that analysts couldn’t compare his previous P&L apples-to-apples. Meanwhile, Cards was spun out as a standalone business under [REDACTED], who became Citi’s only female business-line head reporting directly to Fraser.
Now look at the results. Wealth is growing, while Cards revenue was flat year over year and net income declined 8%.
So here’s my question: Did Fraser throw [REDACTED] a life raft by giving him Retail Banking, only to leave [REDACTED] with a more challenging business to defend?
Because there is a certain irony in a female CEO who, before Trump, would talk endlessly about advancing women, yet appears remarkably willing to rescue the toxic men around her while leaving women to sink or swim.
I’d be very interested in understanding how the decision was made, who benefited from it, and whether the Board examined the implications for both businesses.
Hopefully [REDACTED] has friends who check this site; she might want to use this for her year-end review.