Citi's overseas retreat advances with sale of Polish business

• Key insight: Citi has finalized the divestiture of its Polish consumer-banking business.
  
• What's at stake: The sale is part of CEO Jane Fraser's multiyear plan to simplify the bank.
  
• Forward look: Citi is still planning to conduct an initial public offering for Banamex, its retail banking subsidiary in Mexico. 

Citi has completed the sale of its Polish consumer-banking franchise, marking another step in its half-decade-long journey to exit consumer banking in underperforming, international markets.

The megabank said Friday that its Polish subsidiary, Citi Handlowy, has finalized the sale of its consumer-banking business to Velobank, one of the largest banks in Poland. Announced in May 2025, the divestiture includes wealth management, micro-business banking, credit cards, consumer loans, deposits and assets under management, consumer clients of the brokerage business, branches and other consumer assets, along with the transfer of 1,600 Citi employees.

Citi has been selling and winding down consumer banking businesses in 14 overseas markets — including Mexico, China, Russia and Thailand — since 2021. The withdrawals have played a key role in CEO Jane Fraser's multiyear effort to simplify the $2.8 trillion-asset company, which was routinely criticized for being too large and complex, and for not delivering higher returns.

"With the successful closing of the sale of our consumer banking business in Poland, we have achieved a key milestone in our firm's simplification," Ernesto Torres Cantú, Citi's head of international businesses, said Friday in a press release. "This transaction sharpens our focus, allowing us to enhance our institutional businesses and better connect corporations in Poland to our global network."

The deal excludes Citi's institutional client businesses in Poland, which Citi Handlowy will retain. It is "financially immaterial to Citi," according to the release and it will give the bank a "modest regulatory capital benefit on a cumulative basis since the sale was announced," the bank said.

In 2025, Citi recorded an approximate $186 million loss in revenue related to the sale, it said in its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings results. The bank has not disclosed a sale price.

Citi originally said it would exit consumer banking in 13 international markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East where it wasn't large enough to compete. Of those 13, 10 sales have been finalized, including Poland, a Citi spokesperson confirmed Friday in an email. The other three were wind-downs: one in China and one in Russia, both of which are done, and one in Korea, which has not yet been finalized due to a voluntary retirement program, the spokesperson said.

In early 2022, Citi added a 14th market — Mexico, where it operates Banamex. In December, it sold a 25% stake in Banamex to Mexican businessman Fernando Chico Pardo. In April, it sold another 22.6% of a 24% stake of Banamex to a consortium of institutional investors and family offices, with a remaining 1.4% stake expected to be sold in coming months. In total, Citi will have sold 49% of Banamex. The bank said it does not anticipate additional sales in 2026.

Citi, which will continue to offer institutional banking in Mexico, is still planning to conduct an initial public offering at some point in the future in order to sell the rest of its stake in Banamex.

Timing of the IPO depends on market conditions and regulatory approvals, the bank has said.