- Key insight: Citi's revenues rose 14% during the first quarter, reflecting growth in each of its five core businesses.
- What's at stake: The global bank's multiyear turnaround effort, led by CEO Jane Fraser, has reached its five-year mark.
- Forward look: The bank reaffirmed that it expects to achieve a key profitability target by the end of this year.
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Citi's profits swelled during the first quarter, as the megabank benefitted from a surge in equity markets activity along with upticks in its treasury and trade solutions and investment banking businesses.
Net income surged 42% year over year, totaling $5.8 billion for the quarter ending March 31. Earnings per share were $3.06, handily beating Wall Street expectations. Analysts had predicted the bank would report earnings per share of $2.63, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Firmwide revenues were $24.6 billion, up 14% compared with the same quarter last year and driven by an increase in revenues in each of Citi's five core businesses, the bank said Tuesday.
Equity markets revenues of $2.1 billion, rose 39% due to growth in derivatives, prime services and cash equities, the bank said. Treasury and trade solutions, which is part of Citi's services business, reported a 17% year-over-year increase in revenues, while investment banking's revenues of $1.3 billion increased 19% compared with the year-ago period.
In a press release, CEO Jane Fraser said the $2.8 trillion-asset bank is reaping the rewards of its diversified business model, which "continues to drive consistent revenue growth" for the firm.
Citi remains on track to achieve a return on tangible common equity of 10% to 11% by the end of this year, Fraser said in the release. For the first quarter, the closely-watched financial metric came in at 13.1%, up from 9.1% in the year-ago period and compared with 7.7% for all of 2025.
Net interest income for the first quarter was $15.7 billion, reflecting a 12% year-over-year increase. Noninterest income was $8.9 billion, up 17% from the same quarter last year.
Citi's first-quarter operating expenses totaled $14.3 billion. The bank said higher compensation and benefit costs, including higher severance expenses, contributed to a 7% year-over-year increase.
The bank repurchased $6.3 billion of common shares in the first quarter. It said it expects buybacks this year to be higher than the $13.25 billion it repurchased for all of 2025.
Citi's latest quarterly earnings report comes about three weeks before the bank's May 7 investor day. It will be Citi's first such event in four years. Besides Fraser, investors will hear from Citi's new chief financial officer, Gonzalo Luchetti, as well as the heads of business lines.
Fraser, who is now in her fifth year as CEO, was named chair of Citi's board last fall. She has been leading the once-troubled bank through a multiyear overhaul to improve its risk and compliance programs, focus on its core competencies and drive higher shareholder returns.
Her work is being rewarded. In addition to being named board chair, her compensation package for 2025 totaled $42 million, reflecting an increase of about 21.7% compared with the prior year.
Citi had another eventful quarter. In February, it closed the sale of a former Russian subsidiary, completing its yearslong exit from the country. Financial terms of the sale of AO Citibank to Renaissance Capital were not disclosed, but the bank did say the divestiture was expected to benefit its common equity Tier 1 capital in the first quarter by approximately $4 billion.
Later in February, Citi said it reached a deal to sell an additional 24% of its Mexican retail bank, Grupo Financiero Banamex, for around $2.5 billion to a handful of investors, including private equity firms, a bank and a sovereign wealth fund. The transactions, which are expected to close this year pending regulatory approval, follow Citi's sale of 25% of Banamex to billionaire Fernando Chico Pardo, who paid about $2.3 billion.
Both the Russia and Mexico divestitures are part of Citi's multiyear exit from underperforming consumer franchises in 14 overseas markets. As of March 31, the bank had sold or wound down retail operations in several countries, including Poland, China, Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Bahrain and the Philippines.
During the quarter, Bloomberg reported that Citi was considering buying a regional bank in the U.S. to ramp up deposits. Citi dismissed the idea as "baseless speculation."
