Citigroup

On June 16, 1812, City Bank of New York came into existence, with Samuel Osgood appointed its president. The bank grew out of a petition from New York merchants aligned with President James Madison, and it stood at 52 Wall Street.⁠[1]

In 1902 the International Banking Corporation (IBC) opened a branch in Shanghai, the year Citi dates its arrival in China from.⁠[2]

In 1955 the bank merged with First National Bank of New York and was renamed First National City Bank. In 1968 First National City Corp. was created as a holding company, later renamed Citicorp.⁠[3]

On November 28, 1997, Travelers Group completed its merger with Salomon, and Smith Barney Holdings was merged into Salomon to form Salomon Smith Barney Holdings.⁠[4]

On April 6, 1998, Citibank chairman John Reed and Travelers Group chief executive Sanford I. Weill announced a $140 billion merger. The new company was owned 50:50, and its name joined “Citi” from Citicorp with “Group” from Travelers Group. Weill said “Citicorp stuck out like a strategic home run.”⁠[5]

On October 8, 1998, Citicorp merged into a newly formed wholly owned subsidiary of Travelers Group Inc., with Citicorp shareholders receiving 2.5 Citigroup shares for each Citicorp share. After the merger Travelers Group changed its name to Citigroup Inc., and the deal was accounted for as a pooling of interests.⁠[4]

In August 2001 Citigroup bought Mexico’s Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival for $6.26 billion in cash plus a like amount in stock, its largest international acquisition to that date.⁠[6]

In 2002 Citigroup spun off Travelers Property Casualty through an initial public offering and a distribution to shareholders. Weill said he would step down as chief executive at the end of 2003, and Charles O. Prince was named to succeed him.⁠[6]

In 2007 Citi received regulatory approval to become one of the first international banks locally incorporated in China, operating through Citibank (China) Co., Ltd.⁠[2]

On November 23, 2008, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC said in a joint statement that the Treasury would invest $20 billion in Citigroup from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for preferred stock with an 8% dividend, that the government would protect an asset pool of about $306 billion of loans and securities against unusually large losses, and that Citigroup would comply with enhanced executive compensation restrictions.⁠[7]

Under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the U.S. government invested a total of $45 billion in Citigroup: $25 billion through the Capital Purchase Program and $20 billion through the Targeted Investment Program.⁠[8]

On December 6, 2010, the Treasury priced an offering of about 2.4 billion Citigroup common shares at $4.35 each, disposing of its remaining common stock for expected proceeds of $10.5 billion. It said it had recovered all of the $45 billion plus about $12.0 billion in profits.⁠[9]

On October 16, 2012, Vikram Pandit, appointed chief executive at the start of the financial crisis, stepped down as CEO and director, effective immediately. The board unanimously elected Michael Corbat, previously CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa, as CEO. President and chief operating officer John P. Havens also resigned.⁠[10]

On September 10, 2020, Citigroup announced that Corbat, who had led it for eight years, planned to retire the following February and that Jane Fraser, head of global consumer banking, would succeed him as the first woman to lead one of Wall Street’s big six banks.⁠[11]

On October 7, 2020, the Federal Reserve issued a consent order to Citigroup and the Office of the Comptroller of the CurrencyOffice of the Comptroller of the CurrencyThe Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is an independent U.S. Treasury bureau that supervises national banks and other institutions.Open the full entry (OCC) issued one to Citibank, N.A., requiring plans to improve risk management, compliance, data quality management and governance, and internal controls. Citibank agreed to pay a $400 million civil money penalty.⁠[12]

On January 11, 2022, Citi announced it would exit the consumer, small business and middle-market banking operations of Citibanamex while keeping a locally licensed institutional banking business in Mexico. CEO Jane Fraser said, “Mexico is a priority market for Citi—that will not change.”⁠[13]

In April 2022 the OCC lifted a 2012 consent order over Citigroup’s anti-money-laundering and Bank Secrecy Act compliance. Citigroup was still addressing the two 2020 consent orders with the OCC and the Federal Reserve, work involving more than 9,000 employees.⁠[14]

On July 10, 2024, the Federal Reserve assessed a $60,625,620 civil money penalty on Citigroup over ongoing deficiencies in data quality management, ineffective compensating controls and delays in completing milestones in its approved plan. Citibank also consented to a separate OCC penalty and an amendment to its 2020 OCC order.⁠[15]

The OCC ended the amendment on December 18, 2025, and the 2020 orders stayed in effect.⁠[16]

Effective December 1, 2024, Citi separated its institutional banking business in Mexico from its consumer, small and middle market businesses: the former went to Grupo Financiero Citi México and the latter to Grupo Financiero Banamex, which operates through Banco Nacional de México. Citi said it continued to work toward a Banamex initial public offering.⁠[17]

On September 24, 2025, Citi agreed to sell 25% of Banamex (about 520 million shares) to Fernando Chico Pardo for about MXN 42 billion (about $2.3 billion), at a fixed price-to-book of 0.80 times.⁠[18]

The sale closed on December 15, 2025, to a company wholly owned by Chico Pardo and his immediate family, and he became chair of Grupo Financiero Banamex with immediate effect. Jane Fraser, Citi’s chair and CEO, said the closing advanced its priority of divesting Banamex.⁠[19]

In 2025 Citigroup had total revenues, net of interest expense, of $85.2 billion and net income of $14.3 billion, with about 226,000 direct staff at year-end.⁠[16]

On February 18, 2026, Citi completed the sale of AO Citibank in Russia. On April 29, 2026, it completed the sale of 22.6% of Banamex’s outstanding common stock, with the remaining 1.4% of a previously announced 24% stake expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.⁠[20]

As of the second quarter of 2026, Citi was still remediating its 2020 consent orders.⁠[20]