Learn about the man accused of reforming Citi Investment Bank

When Jin Fraser, CEO of Citigroup, used Vovan to lead the banking department of the lender as part of a wider restructuring in February 2024, she was opposing a stranger.

A little more than a year after the start of the work, the former JPMorgan Chase Executive rocked the driving of the banking section and theft of dozens of bankers from all over Wall Street in an attempt to convert the investment bank that lasted for a decade to City into the best three players.

His ambition is to convert Citi Commercial and Investment Bank into a force that can challenge the likes of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America. The concession is constantly lagging behind these competitors and was the fifth largest investment bank through the fees acquired last year, according to LSEG data.

“The return measure is that the reference bank for our customers becomes everything they do,” Raghavan told the Financial Times in an interview at the Lower Manhattan headquarters in Manhattan. The key to this strategy is to take advantage of the current size of the CITI World Trade Bank to convert more deals to the investment bank.

“When this reference bank is, all of this wallet is participating, the league tables, … it is solving himself,” said Raghavan, a banker from the Indian generator who spent most of his financial career climbing JPMorgan in London, where he was running a banker for global investment before the sudden exit in 2024.

The choice of Fraser caused a shock in Wall Street and inside the bank, especially in New York. From the relatively unknown financier of Europe, Raghavan is known for being a difficult internal operator from an open manufacturer who was published to win customers and close deals.

One of the veteran bankers said: “Vis is a different animal from what people in Citi are very flexible. It is definitely difficult and will press a lot on the system and will pressure it strongly.”

“It gives much less importance to individuals. He appreciates his people and puts people who trust where he knows they can implement. He believes the brand name is stronger than most bankers. This works in JPMorgan. We’ll see it tested in Citi.”

A successful transformation will put the 59 -year -old in a single day competition, Fraser, Scottish CEO oversees the most ambitious restructuring in City for more than a decade. Raghavan, who paid $ 23 million in 2024 and is in line $ 52 million in wages To compensate for what the transition from JPMorgan, Citi CEO is also lost.

His mission was helped by the new momentum in the bank. After Citi recorded the worst quarter in 14 years at the end of 2023, it announced that it expected to reduce 20,000 jobs – about 10 percent of the labor force. Now there are signs that repair may pay fruits.

CITI shares are sitting at their highest levels since 2008, after running, which has seen 70 percent increase in the past year. A CITI banker has long jokingly jokingly to FT, and for the first time in his long career, he had to worry about capital gains.

But there are also signs of progress in investment banking services specifically. Investment banking fees increased by 13 percent in the second quarter and CITI advised deals including Nippon Steel acquisition of $ 15 billion from Merck Steel and Merck at $ 10 billion in virona pharma.

CITI still has a way to go to persuade Wall Street that it could reach its long -term goal of 15 percent revenue from the concrete joint property rights of the banking department.

“The challenge of Raghavan is an attempt to obtain returns not only from being acceptable but to good,” said Mike Mayo, an analyst at Wales Vargo, who said City Investment Bank.

Raghavan, a former banker of Raghavan, repaired Raghavan from the department’s leadership as well as promoting health coverage, technology and industrial in Citi and growing in the middle markets. One of its strategy pillars is to make CITI a dangerous power in providing customer’s funding, as well as the deals they recommend.

This would allow Citi to obtain a segment of the special capital boom he lost while it was busy identifying the old problems inherited from the financial crisis, which restricts the appetite of risk.

Raghavan said: “If you really do a good job (on financial shepherds and financial financing), and she returned until they are similar, there is at least a mathematical inevitability that this privilege is at least three.”

In the sale of $ 10.6 billion from Boeing to Jeppesen to Thoma Bravo, Citi scored roles to advise Boeing on the deal and on the hidden financing package through its credit partnership of $ 25 billion with APollo.

Recent gains in investment banking services are not only to Raghavan: Many have not started his new employment in the bank. Last year, he also played with some historical strengths of City, including the release of high -quality bonds before the US elections.

However, the positive momentum of CITI – and Raghavan – allowed to be on the front foot when it comes to investing in priority areas and attracting bankers from competing groups.

Raghavan was on employment spray, targeting JPMorgan in particular, as soon as the inconsistency agreement with the old employer ended.

Part of its stadium to the new recruits is that they can help pay a meaningful change in a weakened such as CITI instead of remaining satisfied in a place like Jpmorgan, for example, while the small market share remains to overcome.

Raghavan said: “I am always weak than the upper dog,” Raghavan said. “There are many places where they are The day of the Earth’s rat. . . What you often find is the people who were in a place for a long time of saying, as you know, “it’s boring.”

He will have to carry out an accurate budget work between employing higher talents in an excessive competitive labor market and the wider Citi goal to maintain a narrow cover on expenses, which was a painful point for investors and a decisive part of the profitable freezer.

“When we hire, I am cheap,” Raghavan, who added that “homogeneity about the compensation structure” is not negotiable. His new list, which includes more than ten precedents JPMorgan colleagues It includes a few popular names.

The other challenge is to keep employees to his side while renewing the bank’s culture to make it more aggressive.

Mayo said: “The’s reputation is that it is demanding and not suitable for everyone.” “CITI needs a kind of disposal, but there is always a challenge to sew the needle to require enough to achieve the required performance without alienating the people who are appointed to them.”

Raghavan says “distress” is given when he is hunting new recruits. This same word is often used by former and current colleagues for its description and management style.

One of the big bankers was reflected in the cause of this.

“I think his clear mission is to replace a gene,” they said. “But he got the biological clock.”