Citi's new investment banking MDs seem weighted towards London over NY
Citi promoted 344 new managing directors (MDs) this year – one of the biggest promotion rounds in recent history – and there are eyebrows being raised over more than just the list of tech promotions.
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Just 49 of those 344 names are under what Citi considers the “banking” umbrella. There’s a few commercial and corporate bankers here and there, but most are in investment banking. Of the 49, 11 are based in London, but just 12 are based in New York.
The number of new promotions itself is perhaps not so surprising. Citi has cut people and intends to continue cutting in the name of cost savings as well as reducing organizational complexity. Promoting someone to MD is a vote of confidence when budgets are tight.
The comparative strength of London promotions to relative to New York looks curious, though, Data from market intelligence firm Dealogic shows that Citi generated $1.7bn in investment banking revenues in the US during the first nine months of 2024 versus $754m in all of EMEA. Nor does Citi's league table performance seem to justify the apparently preferential treatment of London banking. In the US Citi ranked 5th for all investment banking fees in the first nine months of 2024, compared to 5th last year. In EMEA it actually fell one spot, from 4th to 5th.
So why the discrepancy? We don't know. Conspiracy theorists, however, might think that Vis Raghavan is the key to everything. Raghavan spent the bulk of his career in London, and maybe has a preference for how business is conducted on that side of the pond: he brought over Jens Welter from London to New York, for example, to run American IB coverage for Citi. Raghavan also brought over a former colleague from JPM,
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