Citigroup is changing the way it rewards corporate and investment bankers and wealth advisers for passing business to colleagues, the Financial Times reported citing an internal memo.
Under the revised approach, the bank will pay employees directly for bringing in business across different parts of the group.
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This marks a shift from the previous system, where revenue linked to referrals was divided between Citi’s business units.
In the memo to staff, Citi said it was introducing “partnership awards” across its banking and wealth management operations to reward “meaningful cross-business collaboration”.
“Partnership awards recognise colleagues who champion ‘OneCiti’ through client introductions that generate incremental business wins for banking and wealth,” Vis Raghavan, Citi’s head of banking, and Andy Sieg, who runs the wealth business, wrote in the memo, which was seen by the FT.
The publication said Citi confirmed the memo’s contents.
The report said private bankers will receive a fee for referring business to the investment bank, such as when a client uses Citi to list a company on the stock market.
Bankers will also be paid when they refer a corporate client that later opens a wealth management account with the bank.
The changes to the referral model were led by Dawn Nordberg, head of integrated client solutions. Nordberg, previously at Morgan Stanley, joined Citi in 2024 with a mandate to strengthen links between the bank’s wealth and banking businesses.
According to the memo, the programme will be managed by a dedicated team.
Citi is due to hold an investor day on 7 May, when Fraser and her leadership team are expected to brief shareholders on the bank’s restructuring efforts. Those measures have included shrinking its international retail banking footprint and cutting thousands of jobs.
Fraser has also recently reshaped Citi’s wealth division by moving its US retail bank into the unit and separating its consumer cards operation, expanding Sieg’s responsibilities.
