Citi's New CEO Taps Old Strategy With Exits In India, 12 Other Markets

Jane Fraser, who rose to the top of the firm last month, is on familiar ground as she moves to exit retail banking in 13 markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of a strategic overhaul.

As Citigroup Inc. simplifies its sprawling businesses, new Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser is reaching for a familiar playbook: her own. Fraser, who rose to the top of the firm last month, is on familiar ground as she moves to exit retail banking in 13 markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of a strategic overhaul. Within a year of taking over the company's operations in Latin America in 2015, the former consultant oversaw sales of retail-banking and credit-card operations in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. Once the world's biggest bank, Citigroup has spent more than a decade cleaving businesses, and Fraser is now showing no sign of relenting as she carries out a multi-year remediation effort in the wake of regulatory rebukes. The lender already has shed almost $1 trillion in assets since it nearly succumbed to the 2008 financial crisis. Long known as one of the most global banks, it will soon operate retail branches in just six countries, down from 50 in 2006. "While these are excellent franchises we don't have the scale we need to compete," Fraser said during a call Thursday to discuss earnings. "We decided we simply aren't the best owners of them over the long term."