Citi promotes Jane Fraser, sets stage for first female CEO

Bloomberg

Jane Fraser ascended to the No. 2 job at Citigroup, putting her in position to succeed Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat and become the first woman to lead a major US bank.
The behemoth lender named Fraser as president and handed her responsibility for consumer banking, one of its thorniest turnaround efforts in recent years. Corbat moved to keep Fraser at the bank in a year when her name was mentioned among potential candidates to run Wells Fargo & Co or HSBC Holdings Plc.
“It’s a training ground to see if she’s potentially the right person,” said Jeff Harte, an analyst at Sandler O’Neill. “To name her president, both Corbat and the board must see her as the right person to be CEO, but this will be her chance to prove it and get trained.”
Fraser, who oversaw the lender’s sizable operations across Latin America, will run the consumer bank after Stephen Bird departs to pursue an opportunity elsewhere, the company said.
Fraser, 52, is a rare member of his senior executive team with experience in strategic planning and across the firm’s sprawling businesses. She’s known to have surprised skeptics over the years — for example, by speaking fluent Spanish in her first town hall meeting to address employees in Latin America. “In many ways, Jane helped shape the company we are today,” Corbat, 59, said in the statement announcing her promotion.
“I remain committed to leading our firm in the coming years and look forward to working even more closely with Jane in her new roles.”
The industry is under mounting pressure to improve diversity of its leadership and elevate women. In April, white men running seven of the largest US banks were grilled at a congressional hearing about why their companies have never put a woman in charge. Several, including Corbat, said they could imagine one succeeding them.
At JPMorgan Chase & Co, CEO Jamie Dimon reassigned some of his top leaders earlier this year, putting two women in positions that could potentially pave a path to the CEO job. In May, Jennifer Piepszak became chief financial officer and joined JPMorgan’s operating committee as Marianne Lake moved to lead the firm’s consumer lending business.