Citi hires banking head from JPMorgan, prompting reshuffle of bosses

NEW YORK: Citigroup appointed Viswas Raghavan from JPMorgan Chase as its new head of banking, prompting a wave of changes at his previous firm just weeks after he was promoted.

Raghavan most recently served as JPMorgan’s head of global investment banking. He is expected to join Citigroup in the summer, CEO Jane Fraser said in an internal memo seen by Reuters.

JPMorgan named Doug Petno and Filippo Gori as co-heads of global banking, reorganizing the business as it announced Raghavan’s departure, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Monday.

Raghavan is a “proven leader and his appointment is another example of our ability to attract the best talent to our firm,” Fraser wrote. Peter Babej, Citi’s interim head of banking, will stay in the transitional role until he retires later this year.

Citigroup is going through its largest reorganization in decades and has recently announced it will reduce headcount by 20,000 in the next two years. Fraser has brought in new leadership to help with the overhaul, including Andy Sieg, who joined from Bank of America to run the wealth division in September.

Raghavan was recently promoted to head of global investment banking at JPMorgan after serving as a co-head since 2020. He previously led investment and corporate banking in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

In his new role, Raghavan will work alongside Ernesto Torres Cantú, Citi’s head of international, and David Livingstone, who leads its newly created client division, Fraser wrote. Revenue at Citi’s banking division rose by 22% to $949 million last quarter. At JPMorgan, corporate and investment-banking revenue increased 3% to $11 billion while commercial banking revenue increased by 7% to $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

At JPMorgan, the new structure will merge commercial, corporate and investment banking under one division, called global banking.

Petno, 59, has run commercial banking since 2012. Gori, in addition to serving alongside Petno as co-head of global banking, will also become CEO of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

In January, JPMorgan shuffled executives in its investment banking and consumer units, giving them more experience running different businesses as Wall Street focuses on succession plans for CEO Jamie Dimon.