Citi Is in ‘Active Dialogue’ to Sell Russia Consumer Business

Citigroup is speeding up the sale of its Russia consumer business, Chief Executive Jane Fraser said.

“We’re selling our consumer and our commercial banking franchise on the ground there, and we’re in active dialog around that,” Fraser said to Bloomberg Television at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

After the sale of its consumer business in Russia was announced a year ago investors are worried on the process because of the on-going economic sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Fraser announced last April 2021 that Citi would divest consumer business in a dozen markets that were too small to keep. Citi has since found buyers for many of those businesses with just four remaining markets in which it’s seeking buyers: Russia, Poland, China and Mexico.

“We looked at China and Russia and Poland that we’re working on actively, and then Mexico was just announced recently and we’re already in the market,” Fraser said. “We’re on a multiyear journey, and we are getting on with it.”

Fraser also said that Citigroup will continue to serve multi-national corporations in Russia because they need the bank to shutdown their businesses there.

“You’re kind of the captain who’s the last one off the ship. Because we can’t help other people with their own programs for exit if you’re not facilitating them.”