(Bloomberg) - Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said the company is willing to make adjustments to staffing levels inside its investment bank as the firm and its rivals continue to deal with an industrywide slump in dealmaking and underwriting activity.
The New York-based company no longer expects a rebound in investment-banking activity this year, Fraser said in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. Corporate clients continue to be whipsawed by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive push to raise interest rates and the ongoing US debt-ceiling debate, she said.
“Like every institution, you make some adjustments around the capacity, but we’re playing the long game in investment banking,” Fraser said. “The second half is not going to be as strong macroeconomically or in terms of investment-banking wallet and the like that we had hoped.”
Still, Fraser said, Citigroup has been willing to add talent in certain key sectors, including health care and technology.
Citigroup and many large rivals have already begun trimming positions as they cope with the dealmaking drop that’s cut into fees across Wall Street. The company’s investment-banking revenues slumped to $774 million in the first quarter, down 25% from a year earlier.
By Jenny Surane and Sonali Basak
