Citi names Jane Fraser as first female CEO of major US bank
By: Thornton M.
Citigroup’s longtime chief is stepping down early next year — and his successor is about to make some financial “herstory.”
The $2.2 trillion megabank said Thursday it has picked the bank’s president Jane Fraser to succeed longtime chief executive Michael Corbat, making her the first female CEO of a major US bank. Corbat will leave in February 2021 after eight years at the helm.
The Scottish-born Fraser has been with Citi since 2004 and currently oversees the bank’s massive global consumer banking operation. Before joining Citi, she was a partner at McKinsey & Co.
Fraser, 53, didn’t mention her glass-ceiling shattering in her statement, saying simply “I am honored by the Board’s decision and grateful to Mike for his leadership and support.”
But veterans of Wall Street’s gender wars said the importance of Fraser’s breakthrough can’t be denied.
“I think we are seeing the start of a movement,” said Charlotte Beyer, who spent 40 years in financial services and is the founder of the Principle Quest Foundation which mentors women to empower them in the workplace. “These women have had to work twice as hard to get where they are now. They are all extraordinary and more than capable of taking these jobs.”
Momentum has been growing in recent years to put a woman at the helm of a so-called “Big Four” US bank.
JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon has strongly hinted that a woman will succeed him as CEO of the nation’s biggest lender, and two of his most powerful lieutenants, chief financial officer Jennifer Piepszak, and CEO of Consumer Lending, Marianne Lake, are female.
JPMorgan Asset & Wealth Management CEO Mary Callahan Erdoes is also on the shortlist to be Dimon’s successor, but the 64-year-old man known as “America’s Banker” has shown no signals that he is ready to end his almost 15-year reign at JPMorgan.
Wells Fargo made a show of trying to hire a female CEO in the spring of 2019. According to multiple reports, the embattled bank looked at Lake, Fraser and Bank of America chief operations officer Cathy Bessant. It eventually hired former BNY Mellon CEO Charles Scharf.
One month after Scharf got the Wells Fargo job, Corbat promoted Fraser from running the bank’s Latin American operations to the official number two role at Citi.
“I have worked with Jane for many years and am proud to have her succeed me,” Corbat said in a Thursday statement. “With her leadership, experience and values, I know she will make an outstanding CEO.”
