Dive Brief:
- Citi elevated Jonathan Lofthouse to co-CIO Wednesday, just months after a different executive was named to the position, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
- Lofthouse replaces departing co-CIO Stuart Riley, a 14-year veteran of Citi who became co-CIO in September.
- Lofthouse will lead the financial services company’s digital transformation efforts with co-CIO Shadman Zafar. Citi declined to comment on Lofthouse’s new role, Riley’s departure or how Lofthouse and Zafar will coordinate their roles as co-CIOs.
Dive Insight:
The IT leadership reshuffle comes at the tail end of a year of transition and technology investment for Citi.
In a push to right-size its operating model, the bank stood up five business units in September, eliminating the Personal Banking and Wealth Management and Institutional Clients Group management layers. It also shuttered regional divisions in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.
“These changes eliminate unnecessary complexity across the bank, increase accountability for delivering excellent client service and strengthen our ability to benefit from the natural linkages that exist amongst our businesses, all with an eye toward delivering on our medium-term targets and our transformation,” CEO Jane Fraser said in the announcement.
The company laid off more than 300 senior managers Monday, Bloomberg reported. The cuts affected employees two levels below Fraser’s executive management team, according to the report.
Fraser rose to CEO at Citi in 2020, becoming the first woman to lead a major Wall Street bank.
Earlier this year, she tapped Anand Selva, formerly the head of personal banking and wealth management, to replace departing COO Karen Peetz. Selva was tasked with overseeing the company’s transformation, including significant IT investments.
The company added 8,000 technologists to its transformation workforce during the first three months of the year and poured $3 billion into tech modernization during the second and third quarters.
Citi’s digital transformation efforts have also focused on simplifying business processes, Fraser said during the company’s Q3 earnings call.
As of October, the company had retired 290 apps, reduced processing time of complex calculations related to stress testing by more than 50% and rearchitected approximately half of transactional processes related to prioritized products, according to its third quarter report.
