Citigroup to wind down consumer unit in Russia

Bloomberg

Citigroup will wind down its consumer and commercial banking operations in Russia after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine complicated the sale of the business.
The company will incur $170 million in costs tied to the wind-down, mostly tied to restructuring expenses and vendor termination fees, according to a statement. Citigroup will continue to try to sell certain consumer-banking portfolios in the region.
“We have explored multiple strategic options to sell these businesses over the past several months,” said Titi Cole, who leads Citigroup’s legacy franchises unit, which houses all the operations the firm has tagged for sale. “It’s clear that the wind-down path makes the most sense given the many complicating factors in the environment. We are focused on supporting our impacted colleagues, clients and partners during this period of transition.”
Bloomberg News first reported the sale of the business had stalled in March, but months later Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said her firm was in “active dialog” with potential buyers of its consumer and commercial banking operations in Russia.
Citigroup was in the midst of overhauling its businesses in Russia when the country went to war. At first, the company stopped accepting new business in Russia and announced it would also seek to dispose of commercial-banking business in addition
to consumer unit that was
already up for sale.
“The decision is part of our continuing efforts to reduce our activities in Russia,” David Livingstone, who leads Citigroup’s businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said in the statement.