Citi's severance spending suggests it won't be cutting jobs this Q4
Along with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, Citi is reporting its third quarter results today. It seems that big hiring may be over at the bank. And that big firing may be in the past too.
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In the earnings presentation accompanying its results, Citi said its investment in new talent is "largely complete." This follows a flood of senior external recruits, many but not all of whom have arrived from JPMorgan.
While Citi has stocked up on at least 10 senior investment bankers, plus talent across areas like prime broking, it's also been cutting heads. In January 2024, Citi announced its intention of removing 20,000 jobs in two years. Earlier this year, it still had 10,000 of those job cuts to go.
Despite a few layoffs in the London debt capital markets team in August, Citi doesn't seem to have much headway with its 10,000 remaining layoffs. The bank began 2025 with 229,000 people and it still employed 229,000 people in September. Maybe the 20,000 target is being quietly shelved?
Citi employees can allow themselves to hope so. There are auspicious signs that the bank isn't planning to make the outstanding 10,000 job cuts in the fourth quarter. It's already exceeded its planned severance spending for the year. In January 2025, Citi said it was earmarking $600m for severance payments this year. Today, it said it's already spent $700m more than this exiting some Asian retail markets in the first nine months.
With luck, then Citi's remaining jobs are safe for the rest of 2025, at least. In the meantime, it seems that recent hires are having an effect. M&A revenues are up 40% in the first nine months of this year and prime balances are up 44%. Only the Citi DCM team seems to be limping: revenues there are up less than 1% compared to double digit increases at Goldman and JPM.
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