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Following the recent resignations of the San Francisco bank’s co-CEO and chief operating officer, executives sought to project stability during an earnings call Friday. Employee morale is strong, and finding a leader who’s the right fit is more important than filling the job quickly, they said.

Shares fell sharply Friday after the company said spending increased 14% in the fourth quarter and will climb by another 8% in 2022. But CEO Jamie Dimon said the investments in marketing, technology and talent are necessary to ward off threats from traditional banks and upstart fintechs.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors abandoned a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that had challenged the San Francisco fintech's effort to become a national bank without deposit insurance. The company recently amended its application to drop that controversial element.

Financial threats were low on the list of fears chief risk officers at major U.S. banks expect to face in the coming year, according to a recent survey. It’s increased regulation, data management and technology vulnerabilities that keep them up at night.

Overall the company reported fourth-quarter profits of $3.17 billion, which fell short of analysts' forecasts as borrowing declined on Citi-branded cards, fixed-income trading tumbled and one-time charges mounted.

Citigroup said 99% of its U.S. employees have complied with its vaccine mandate, one of the strictest on Wall Street. 

Despite that year-over-year decline, the company beat analysts' expectations with fourth-quarter net income of $5.8 billion. Stronger commercial lending and lower expenses cushioned the blow in consumer credit.

The company's fourth-quarter trading revenue declined notably more than analysts had expected, while its business and consumer lending each dropped 1% year over year.

President Biden will nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for Supervision and Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to be governors. The selections keep a Biden promise to improve diversity at the Fed.

Citigroup is offloading its consumer-banking businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam as CEO Jane Fraser continues her push to simplify the New York-based bank.