Citigroup is exiting distressed debt trading
CITIGROUP has decided to exit the distressed-debt trading business, the latest retrenchment in chief executive officer Jane Fraser’s effort to reshape the firm in pursuit of higher returns.
The move, described by people briefed on the matter, will remove one of the key players in distressed-debt markets and follows a recent decision by the New York-based bank to get out of municipal bond trading and underwriting.
Closing the distressed-debt business, run by Pat Kris and Joseph Beggans. will impact roughly 20 positions, one of the sources said, asking not to be identified because this information is not public. A company spokesperson declined to comment.
Fraser announced in September that she is undertaking the biggest restructuring of Citigroup in decades as she seeks to make the company more efficient and eliminate layers of management within the bank’s 240,000-person workforce. The firm has repeatedly abandoned or missed targets over the years, and Fraser is determined to restore investor confidence in the company’s ability to set and meet guidance.
Distressed trading can be volatile, with an outsized performance of one year potentially followed by leaner times. The business at Citigroup outperformed in 2021 and slowed significantly in the two years after that, two of the sources said.
Bank of America and Goldman Sachs Group are among the other participants in the market known for their distressed franchises, a field that’s dwindled to only a few big sell-side players globally, the sources said.
Citigroup also has seen a number of senior exits from that business. That included the two former co-heads – Olaf Auerbach, who left last year, and Pete Hall, who departed earlier this year.
As Fraser’s restructuring of the embattled bank takes shape, the decisions show Citi’s willingness to part with some of its franchises where it has built a competitive standing in the pursuit of lifting returns in line with its major peers in US banking. Some of the other moves have already included offloading retail-banking units outside the US as well as embarking on a major restructuring of its management structure that is being accompanied by job cuts. BLOOMBERG
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