Citi bankers brace for job cuts as ‘Project Bora Bora’ advances

afr.com:

Citi’s Australian workforce are bracing for layoffs as the US bank rolls out a global restructuring that will involve thousands of job losses.

Local positions under threat included back-office roles, such as compliance and risk, while Citi’s broker-dealer arm could have some staff reductions, people familiar with the reorganisation told The Australian Financial Review. A later phase of job losses may affect Citi’s investment bankers, the people said.

Citigroup chief executive Jane Fraser has reorganised Citi into five business lines. Bloomberg

It was not immediately clear which positions would be axed, but Australian-based roles with broader Asia-Pacific duties could be cut.

“Citi remains very committed to servicing our clients across the Australian and New Zealand markets with large businesses across banking, markets and services,” a spokeswoman for the bank said.

Citi’s services department conducts treasury and trade solutions (TTS), and securities services like clearing for broker-dealers. Citi’s markets teams do sales and trading across various asset classes, while its banking team houses investment bankers, corporate banking and commercial banking for smaller clients. Citi’s Australian commercial bank, and TTS teams, are considered high-growth segments for the US lender.

The Australian and New Zealand arm currently employs about 900 people and is led by chief executive Mark Woodruff. Its Australian business is now part of Citi’s “banking and international” organisation.

“We’ve acknowledged the actions we’re taking to reorganise the firm involve some difficult, consequential decisions, but they’re the right steps to align our structure to our strategy,” Citi’s spokeswoman said.

In September, chief executive Jane