Jane Fraser is trying to pull chronically struggling Citigroup out of the gutter. She may actually pull it off

Three years ago, as the long-struggling Citigroup was in a tailspin over a billion-dollar fat-finger error, the bank announced its next CEO, Jane Fraser.

Three years ago, as the long-struggling Citigroup was in a tailspin over a billion-dollar fat-finger error, the bank announced its next CEO, Jane Fraser. At the time, given Citi’s chronic problems, it might have looked like a classic Glass Cliff hire — the well-worn corporate strategy of putting a woman in charge just as the business is foundering. Fraser, the first woman ever to run a Wall Street bank, inherited a behemoth that had become a laughingstock among its peers, hobbled by its unwieldy bureaucracy, a bloated staff and slim profit margins. The fat-finger error — in which a Citi employee accidentally wired hundreds of millions more than they should have to creditors of Revlon — was the epitome of the kind of control problems that regulators had been warning the bank about for years. But lately, to the surprise of Citi’s critics, things are looking up. Since September, when Fraser laid out her vision for a more streamlined Citigroup, the bank’s stock has shot up more than 50%. For the first time in nearly two decades, Wall Street appears to be feeling something almost like optimism about America’s third-largest bank. Its stock has outperformed rivals JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America so far this year, and it is expected to report 5% earnings growth for the second quarter this Friday. The bank’s finances are greatly improved, but even the most bullish Citi analysts say Fraser has a long way to go to get the bank’s financial house in order.