Citigroup Inc., the United States’s third-largest bank with US$1.96-trillion in assets, said Thursday that Jane Fraser will become its chief executive in February
ERIN SCOTT/Reuters
Wall Street’s longest-enduring glass ceiling is about to be broken.
Ms. Fraser, the bank’s president and head of its global consumer banking business, will succeed Michael Corbat, who has served as chief executive since 2012. Ms. Fraser was teed up as the bank’s next chief executive last year when she was promoted to her current role.
“It’s frustrating that this moment has been so long in coming,” said Rob Blackwell, chief content officer for Promontory Interfinancial Network, which provides services for banks. “This is a big moment.”
Ms. Fraser has overseen several of Citi’s businesses, serving as chief executive of its private bank, its Latin American region and its U.S. consumer and commercial bank and mortgage business. She worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Co. before joining Citi in 2004.
“We believe Jane is the right person to build on Mike’s record and take Citi to the next level,” John C. Dugan, Citi’s chair, said in a statement. “She has deep experience across our lines of business and regions, and we are highly confident in her.”
Ms. Fraser, 53, will join a very small group of female leaders at major corporations. There are only 31 women among the CEOs of the 500 companies that make up the S&P 500 stock index, according to the advocacy group Catalyst.
She will have no female counterparts among the 10 largest U.S. banks. At a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee last April, one lawmaker asked Mr. Corbat and six of his peers – from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street – to raise their hand if they believed a woman or person of colour would succeed them. None did.
There are few women in the top jobs at financial firms. Ana Botin is executive chair of Spain’s Banco Santander, a role she has held since 2014 after the death of her father, Emilio. Another woman, Beth Mooney, took over the top job at Cleveland-based KeyCorp, one of the 20 largest U.S. banks, nearly 10 years ago, said Mr. Blackwell, the former editor of American Banker, a trade newspaper. But there was little indication that women were making similar advancements at the country’s most powerful financial firms, most of which are based in New York, he said.
Ms. Fraser’s promotion immediately drew kudos from other powerful women on Wall Street. Bank of America’s chief operating officer, Cathy Bessant, who was widely seen as a top candidate to take over as chief executive of Wells Fargo when the bank was searching for a new leader last year, praised the announcement in a post on Twitter on Thursday.
“Great news for the company and for women everywhere,” she wrote.
Citi’s decision to elevate Ms. Fraser is likely to draw attention to the succession plans at other Wall Street firms. JPMorgan Chase has already reshuffled its leadership ranks to put two women, Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak, among the potential candidates to succeed its long-time chair and chief executive, Jamie Dimon.
Ms. Fraser is taking the helm of a bank that has been trying to keep its footing as a global financial institution in the face of the Trump administration’s trade wars and the coronavirus pandemic. While Ms. Fraser has overseen a wide variety of Citi’s operations, she will now take on a broader role as the firm’s public face, with responsibilities ranging from speaking to Wall Street analysts about Citi’s future to testifying before Congress.
“She is an unknown entity to the street,” Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo wrote in a note to investors Thursday. “For that reason, it is unclear whether she has what it takes to lead such a firm, and whether Citi should have looked externally.”
Mr. Mayo added in an interview Thursday that Ms. Fraser “has a very impressive résumé, and Citigroup recognized that. She has gotten this role because of her merits and not merely because she is a woman.”
Mr. Corbat, 60, will leave Citi after an eight-year tenure that began with the sudden resignation of his predecessor, Vikram Pandit, amid a revolt by its board. Under his leadership, the bank sought to rebuild after the 2008 global financial crisis. In its statement, Citi noted that its net income during Mr. Corbat’s tenure grew to nearly US$20-billion last year, from US$7-billion in 2012.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
