Citi names head of new unit for businesses on the chopping block

Citigroup has tapped retail banking veteran Titi Cole to lead its new legacy franchises division, which contains the consumer businesses that Citi is exiting in several countries.

The exits are part of Citi CEO Jane Fraser’s efforts to reshape the megabank. The company is shedding its retail banking operations in Mexico and 13 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“The businesses in Legacy Franchises are great businesses and we need to make sure they have a great leader,” Fraser, who became CEO last year, said in a memo sent to employees on Monday.

Cole, who has already started in the role, joins the bank’s executive management team. She was previously head of global operations and fraud prevention, as well as the chief client officer, in Citi’s global consumer banking unit.

Reuters previously reported on Cole’s new role.

Cole joined Citi in 2020 — she appeared last year on American Banker’s Most Powerful Women to Watch list — after running Wells Fargo’s consumer and small business banking operations and contact centers. Earlier, she led Bank of America’s retail products and underwriting group.

Citi’s plan to exit its consumer businesses in various nations has not fully taken shape, though the bank has found buyers in many countries.

Last year, Citi said it was selling its Australian consumer business to National Australia Bank. It is also selling its Philippines consumer bank to UnionBank of the Philippines, and it struck a deal in January with the Singapore bank DBS for the sale of its Taiwan consumer bank.

Citi’s consumer franchises in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam will be scooped up by Singapore’s UOB Group. Citi is also winding down its Korea consumer bank rather than selling it.

The bank’s legacy franchises division had roughly $125 billion of assets last year, according to a regulatory filing that outlines the company’s new structure. Citi has roughly $2.3 trillion of assets.

Citi’s decision to place all of the businesses it is exiting into one division is reminiscent of its creation of Citi Holdings, a unit that housed the megabank’s struggling assets and unwanted business lines, after the financial crisis. Citi Holdings was formed in 2009. Citigroup stopped reporting its results separately in 2017.