Citigroup cuts over 300 senior manager roles in latest restructuring

afr.com:

New York | Citigroup is eliminating more than 300 senior manager roles as part of chief executive Jane Fraser’s efforts to simplify the Wall Street giant.

The company announced the cuts, which affect staffers two levels below Fraser’s executive management team, on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. They amount to roughly 10 per cent of the workers at that level, said the person who requested anonymity.

Firm-wide headcount has actually remained flat for the past four quarters at 240,000 employees. AP

“Today we shared with our colleagues the next layer of changes across many of our businesses and functions as we continue to align Citi’s organisational structure with our new, simplified operating model,” said a Citigroup statement, which didn’t disclose the number of cuts involved.

“As we’ve acknowledged, the actions we’re taking to reorganise the firm involve some difficult, consequential decisions, but we believe they are the right steps to align our structure with our strategy and ensure we consistently deliver excellence to our clients.”

The workforce reductions, which the bank has said may continue around the globe into next year, are part of Ms Fraser’s strategy to eliminate layers of management and get rid of co-head structures to speed up decision-making across the bank. The company hasn’t put a number on how many employees may ultimately be dismissed.

“Building a winning bank requires a great deal of commitment, hard work and resilience from each of us,” Ms Fraser wrote in a staff memo. “I’m fully aware we’re asking a lot of our people.”

Citi is on track to announce the next layers of change early next year and to complete the final changes by the end of the first quarter, according to the