Citigroup layoffs begin as part of CEO Jane Fraser’s overhaul

Citigroup will soon begin layoffs in CEO Jane Fraser‘s corporate overhaul, CNBC has learned.

Employees affected by the cuts will be informed starting Wednesday, with new dismissals announced daily through early next week, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Those impacted will include chiefs of staff, managing directors and some lower-level employees, said the people. The cuts will spread to more rank-and-file staff by February, they added.

The move tracks with a timeline set by Fraser in a Sept. 13 memo. She announced five new divisions whose heads report directly to her, resulting in the departure of a handful of senior executives. The next phase of disruption will be “communicated and implemented by the end of November,” and “final changes” will be done by the end of March 2024, Fraser said at the time.

Fraser is under pressure to improve Citigroup, which has been mired in a stock slump as headcount and expenses have ballooned in recent years. The CEO, who took over in March 2021, is at a pivotal moment as she faces deep investor skepticism that the bank can hit performance targets she outlined last year.

Employees who have lost their roles may be able to apply for other positions, and Citigroup will offer severance pay where eligible, the bank’s human resources chief told workers last month.  

The full extent of job cuts are still being determined, but managers and consultants working on the project — known internally by its code name, “Project Bora Bora” — have discussed dismissals of at least 10% of workers in several businesses, CNBC reported last week.

New Citigroup organizational charts have been created, and managers are now deciding which employees they will retain and who will be left out, said one of the people.

Workers have flocked to internal chat platforms with questions about the impending cuts, according to the people, who declined to be identified speaking about personnel matters.

A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment Wednesday beyond the statement it offered to CNBC previously:

“We’ve acknowledged the actions we’re taking to reorganize the firm involve some difficult, consequential decisions, but they’re the right steps to align our structure to our strategy and deliver the plan we shared at our 2022 Investor Day.”