00:00Let's first start off with Mark Mason. He's been in that role for quite some time. There had been a lot of speculation about what his future would be, whether he would be elevated at some point. Is this basically an answer?
00:10I think it is, Romain. And I mean, Mark Mason was CFO, let's be clear, before Jane Fraser was even CEO. Mark Mason has been in that CFO seat a long time.
00:18He's been responsible for a lot of the transformation plan that the bank has been trying to do, a lot of the back office work, fixing regulatory issues that have largely been underneath his department as CFO.
00:27We know, you know, there were reports earlier on his career that he was, you know, in line to be CEO of Carlisle. He'd had chats with people outside the bank.
00:35It seemed like he was quite keen to stay on, potentially throw his hat into the ring. But bear in mind, Jane Fraser has just kind of solidified her position at the top of Citigroup just a couple of weeks ago, becoming chair of the bank as well.
00:47That's the first time the CEO has also been chair of Citigroup since 2007. So Jane Fraser seems to be not really going anywhere anytime fast and also, therefore, sort of, you know, integrating herself or sort of, you know, stabilizing herself atop that bank.
01:02Yeah. And now seems to be a time for maybe Mason to move on and for a refresh at the top as well.
01:08Right. And we see the shakeout coming through. So just to go down the list of some of these changes, retail banking and U.S. Citigroup to be integrated within wealth, reporting to Andy Sieg, which is interesting because you reported that he's someone who's recently been investigated.
01:22That's right. That's right, Katie. Yeah. I mean, Andy Sieg, this is a big expansion of his empire, essentially.
01:28You know, Gonzalo Lucchetti, who's becoming CFO, he's head of the U.S. personal banking business.
01:33That's now being merged into wealth underneath Andy Sieg. So Andy Sieg's empire is essentially growing from all the way up to the elite private bank, the international billionaires that Citi serves, all the way down to the retail business.
01:47The Cards business is being spun out into its own unit underneath Pam Habaner, who is a big, you know, a big executive in that space.
01:55She launched some of the big Sapphire brands at J.P. Morgan when she was there before she joined Citigroup.
02:02But, yeah, it is a big it's a big moment for Andy Sieg, who, you know, as you say, Katie, was reported to be under investigation and was under investigation for mistreatment of employees, senior executives around him as recently as this summer.
02:15Jane Fraser has said that she's comfortable with where they got to in that investigation and the bank has stood by him and indeed even given him a promotion now.
02:22I am curious, too. They also talk about in this business how consumer car U.S. consumer cards are now going to be one of their core five businesses.
02:29Now, I was always under the impression that Jane Fraser was trying to move a little bit away from that. Is that just that a mischaracterization?
02:36Yeah, I think I mean, what Fraser was trying to do was pull away from the consumer banking internationally.
02:40The international consumer banking business for Citi didn't seem to be that profitable.
02:44It was they were kind of trying to double down on the U.S. in the way that a lot of banks like J.P. Morgan as well have doubled down on their branch business in the U.S.
02:51Citi is also still trying to do that. Their cards business is pretty profitable.
02:55They've just launched a new elite a strata elite credit card.
03:00They've got partnerships with a lot of the payments companies now. And that is it.
03:04That is a growing and profitable business for them still. So spinning that out and making that its own discreet business, it maybe makes sense for them strategically.
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