花旗回到Pre-Crisis Glory?

It might strain belief that Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat — at a burly 6'4" — chose to surrender the usual expansive corner office for a no-frills cubicle crammed with a conference table and bereft of doors or walls. But nobody doubts Corbat’s commitment to cutting costs.

In his efforts to restore once-mighty Citi to precrisis health, Corbat has overseen the disposal of well over a half-trillion dollars of noncore and money-losing assets, lopped off fat in every business line, and slashed real estate spending — even for his own work space. Along the way, Citi retreated from the financial supermarket ambitions that nearly led to its collapse a decade ago and became instead more of a corporate investment bank than a retail lender, just as it was two generations ago.

But companies rarely shrink themselves to greatness. And now Corbat, a former Harvard lineman, has to demonstrate he’s the quarterback Citi needs to grow — and finally reward its patient shareholders.

他坚持认为危机的谨慎将在下一阶段塑造他的领导。“我们不会醒来并说公司的每个部分都会成长，”57岁的Corbat说，在他的隔间采访中亚博赞助欧冠at Citi’s lower Manhattan headquarters on the Hudson River. “We want to be very careful about allocating our capital and resources to those businesses that are generating the right returns for our investors.”

To achieve that goal, Corbat and his team intend to take full advantage of Citi’s status as the most international of U.S. banks and the one most dependent on foreign revenues. With a larger global footprint than any other American lender, Citi is ramping up its multinational corporate banking while reducing less profitable retail operations abroad. Back home, where Citi relies on credit card revenues more than its rivals, it is seeking more clients, using products that proved successful overseas. And after falling far behind other major banks, Citi is aiming to deliver the highest payouts in the industry.

但在试图重新获得其预测的卓越时，花旗面临着许多障碍作为机会。银行世界已成为一个更强硬的地方。资本成本几乎和十年前一样高，也不回到任何地方。尽管谈到了较少的规定，但足够的保障措施可能会留到特朗普任何返回过去的常飞和过去的方法。虽然花旗推出了其独特商业模式的比较优势，但它面临着从摩根大通Chase＆Co Co.和美国银行等更深的备用银行以及亚洲和拉丁美洲的强大球员的主机竞争。新的跨国公司在新兴市场采用蘑菇，可能更喜欢自己的本土银行给美国人。

Still, last July at the company’s investor day — the first since 2008 — an upbeat Corbat proclaimed the lost decade over. Citi was turning the page to a new era of sustained profitability. Starting this year, he committed the bank to continuous rises in income and a whopping $60 billion in buybacks and dividends by 2020. Revenue is supposed to grow at four times the pace of costs.

Corbat and his team are off to a decent start. Net income for the first three quarters of 2017 was $12 billion, up a respectable 7 percent over the same period last year. With the Federal Reserve Board’s approval, some $19 billion is being returned to shareholders by the end of this year. And Citi’s stock rose 27 percent last year — more than double the banking sector average.

Citi’s ability to take on more risk is also improving. No major bank is better capitalized or has a higher percentage of cash reserves in the event of another crisis on the scale of 2008–9.

“We have at least twice the capital we had back then,” says John Gerspach, 63, the chief financial officer.

But alongside this new sense of security, there is the vision of an institution far less ambitious than it once was. The precrisis conglomerate aspired to be all things financial to all people: an insurer, an asset manager, a hedge fund. Citi was the leading U.S. bank by assets, having tripled in size in the decade leading up to 2007. And at its height, it also had the largest head count, at 357,000 people.

Then the crisis exploded, leaving Citi more exposed than any other major bank. Gargantuan losses in loans and subprime securities forced it to turn to the government for the biggest bank bailout of all. To stay afloat, Citi heaved assets overboard as if it were the crew of a sinking ship. The bank tumbled to fourth place by assets — behind JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. It chopped head count by more than a third. And its share price fell more than 90 percent.

Corbat主持了长期以来的谨慎，不丧心的任务。他是伦敦花旗的欧洲，中东和非洲行动，当时他于2012年被命名，以取代Vikram Pandit作为花旗集团首席执行官。但这是他成功的Stint担任花旗持股 - 所谓的糟糕银行于2009年创造，以应对有毒和非核心资产的约8000亿美元 - 赢得了核心奖。到2011年中期，CITI偿还了450亿美元的救助，并将130亿美元的利润归还给纳税人。花旗控股非常萎缩，银行停止将其报告为今年单独的实体。

整个长时间的下调，Corbat与调节器顺利进行。“他在与我们的交易中有用，知识渊博和专业，”联邦存款保险公司前主席的Sheila Bair召回​​了Sheila Bair。

Along the way, Corbat and his team nevertheless endured blistering criticism from shareholders for failing stress tests and not moving even more quickly to dump assets. Only last year, some analysts were suggesting Citi shareholders would be better served by breaking up the bank roughly into wholesale and retail entities. “The crisis forced people to decide whether to stay at Citi and help rehabilitate it or move on,” says James Forese, 54, chief executive of the Institutional Clients Group, as Citi calls its corporate and investment bank.

现在康复了,Corbat,你好s tightly knit management group have to deliver growth — and that includes deftly handling the challenges Citi faces abroad.

“Is the right basketball coach for a turnaround situation the same as the coach who takes the team to a championship level?” asks R. Burns McKinney, Dallas-based portfolio manager of the NFJ Dividend Value investment strategy at Allianz Global Investors, whose holdings include Citi shares. “We’re on the cusp of finding out with Corbat.”

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康涅狄格州的Bristol Native，Corbat参加了哈佛大学，他在进攻守卫中足够了，以获得国家足球联赛侦察兵的注意。相反，他在Citi收购之前成为萨洛蒙兄弟的邦德推销员。

The bank, founded in 1812 by a coterie of New York merchants and maritime traders, expanded until becoming by the late 20th century the financial flagship of America both at home and abroad. Guided by Sanford (Sandy) Weill, Citigroup also included insurer Travelers Group, stock brokerage Smith Barney, and bulge-bracket investment bank Salomon, among other entities. Corbat’s entire career has been at Citi or firms it absorbed, in posts that ranged from derivatives and wealth management to corporate and retail banking at home and abroad.

“Even as a young guy, Mike was ambitious, very prepared, and had a clear sense of direction,” says Tom Maheras, managing partner of New York–based hedge fund firm Tegean Capital Management and a former Citi executive, who first met Corbat when they both worked at Salomon.

Today, Corbat presides over a globe-straddling giant with $1.2 trillion in risk-weighted assets and a physical presence in 98 countries. International operations account for about half of Citi’s revenues. In the cavernous lobby of Citi’s glass tower headquarters, receptionists dubbed “ambassadors” greet client delegations from several continents.

Two decades ago Western banks rushed abroad, confident their brand names and home-proved cross-selling expertise would conquer emerging markets. But the financial crisis and its aftermath have led analysts and fund managers to take a more skeptical view of global expansion.

In a landmark report this past September, UBS asserted that retail banks were destroying risk-adjusted value by expanding overseas. The report cited seven global lenders, Citi among them, who thought their strong domestic brands would translate into competitive gains abroad. Instead in many cases, these banks were unable to achieve the economies of scale or cross-selling proficiency of local banks.

Nor is corporate banking immune to globalization doubts. Trade is still expanding, though at a reduced pace. And lately, emerging markets don’t seem as safe a growth bet. “I’m more comfortable with Citi growing in developed markets,” says Brian Kleinhanzl, a banking analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

For Forese that would mean squandering the benefits of a global footprint. “If we can’t differentiate what we do relative to another competitor in our segment, then we can’t hope to deliver superior returns,” he says.

花旗高管承认，仅在美国开展业务。没有理由选择他们的银行在其他十几名贷方中。但是，如果一家位于爱荷华州的公司在亚洲的原材料中源于世界各地的货物，这是一个可能会转向花旗的可能性，以获得流动性管理和资本问题。同上美国的美国跨国公司在日本做生意，需要对冲其日元曝光。

By focusing on multinationals, Citi has shed smaller, domestic businesses as it slashed its corporate clients from 32,000 just five years ago to 14,000 today. And that number will come down further, says Forese. Yet his division’s share of income is rising. The corporate and investment bank accounted for two thirds of Citi’s $14.9 billion in net earnings in 2016 and climbed past 70 percent of the group’s net income last year.

To meet demands from more upscale customers, Citi is beefing up its lucrative Treasury and Trade Solutions franchise, which provides cash management, trade, and securities services to companies and governments around the world. TTS already contributes a quarter of corporate and institutional client revenues.

But clouds are drifting across those blue-chip skies. Like other banks, Citi has followed its corporate clients abroad. But the composition of multinationals is changing dramatically. A dozen years ago 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies were from developed countries. Today almost a third are headquartered in emerging markets and are generally growing faster than U.S.-based multinationals. And no surprise, these new corporate giants tend to favor the domestic banks that weaned them.

这在中国尤其如此。花旗只有47个分支，主要是在最大的城市。中国工商银行（ICBC），中国最大的银行，拥有超过18,000个分支机构的国家毯子，为廉价资金提供了巨大的廉价库。由政府，中国银行与中国互联网巨头合作开发他们的数字银行业平台，这有助于提高其成本收入比率。

The best Citi can hope for in China is a small piece of the corporate wallet and pray that Chinese banks don’t expand too quickly into other emerging markets. For now, Citi and other Western banks benefit from the fact that large Chinese corporations and state-owned enterprises are not yet being served by Chinese banks abroad. “But this will become more of a priority over time,” says Forese.

The other great advantage enjoyed by the major U.S. banks, including Citi, is the dollar’s dominance as the currency of international commerce. But this funding edge is also eroding. “We know China has been talking about a greater currency role for the renminbi,” says Christopher Lee, portfolio manager of Fidelity Select Financial Services Portfolio, which includes holdings in Citigroup.

花旗公司和投资银行的表现远远超过零售银行，特别是国外。在Citi的零售业务中尚未证明，同时削减客户号码的相同游戏计划尚未证明这一点。除了较小的占地面积之外，零售银行的净收入与2016年零售额下降了20％。

Over the past dozen years, Citi has reduced the number of countries in which it does retail banking from 50 to 19. And Citi is curtailing retail outlets in some of the remaining countries — even in fast-growing Asia. Over the next year, for example, Citi intends to close some 90 branches in South Korea and concentrate the remainder in centers like Seoul and Busan.

The glaring exception to Citi’s retail setbacks abroad is Mexico — by far its most profitable international operation. But ironically, that’s because Citi kept the popular local brand, Banamex, after purchasing the bank in 2001 for $12.5 billion. Citibanamex, currently Mexico’s second-largest bank, contributed nearly 10 percent to Citi’s total revenues in 2016 and figures prominently in the parent’s overall growth strategy. By 2020, Citi will invest $1 billion in its Mexico operations, mainly to expand its ATM and mobile banking networks.

But Mexico faces political uncertainties from both sides of the border. Investors are increasingly concerned that the Trump administration will scuttle the North American Free Trade Agreement and impose taxes on Mexican imports that might reduce trade and depress the local economy. And Mexico’s presidential election in 2018 could bring to power a left-wing populist, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

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At home, Citi is betting oncredit cards to boost its retail earnings. Cards already account for about 26 percent of total group revenues — well above the 10 percent to 15 percent levels at Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.

凭借其专有卡，银行试图通过促销来引诱客户，如现金返还奖励和零百分比介绍利率。

More promising, though, is co-branding. An exclusive deal with retail giant Costco Wholesale Corp. last year added to a co-branded card portfolio that also includes American Airlines Group, the Home Depot, and Best Buy Co. Co-branding brings in large numbers of clients at a low investment, but revenues must be shared with the bank’s partner. “It’s all about getting the right mix of proprietary and co-brands,” says Stephen Bird, 50, chief executive of Global Consumer Banking, as Citi calls its retail bank.

Still missing from this mix are high-income card clients, a segment in which Citi lags behind JPMorgan Chase in the U.S. To close the gap, Citi hopes to import its successful Citigold card strategy from Asia, where it is a key part of wealth management. The card is available to clients who maintain a bank account balance of at least $200,000 and entitles them to a personal financial adviser and relationship manager. While Citigold is gaining traction in North America, says Kleinhanzl, the KBW analyst, “it’s still not where you would want it to be.”

Citi is further ahead of its rivals in cutting back its branch network, part of a worldwide brick-and-mortar demolition underway as digitalization takes hold. Over the past four years, Citi has shuttered 30 percent of its branches and reduced its real estate footprint by a quarter. Between 2015 and 2025, automation in retail banking will shrink Citi’s overall head count by 30 percent, according to the bank’s estimates. “We are light on bricks and high on clicks,” says Bird, flashing a smartphone with a Citi app that displays all his financial information.

这仍然让银行想知道与其近700个剩余的美国分支机构有关。Citi再次探视其在亚洲的经验。香港和新加坡的分支已经变成了Citigold成员的Clubby会议场所，以咨询他们的关系经理，而不是葡萄酒和鱼子酱品尝。

对于未来美国分公司模型的一瞥，有曼哈顿市中心花旗中心。它唤起了一家航空公司商务休息室，带外城旅行者抵达拖车。在楼上的Citigold套房，咖啡和报纸是免费的。但该中心的真正目的是交叉销售。本地花旗寓成员坐在平面板前，将他们的储蓄和投资与相同的财政和年龄概况的普通客户进行比较。然后，他们可以在资金学费，医疗保健计划和退休账户上咨询他们的关系经理。“银行正在发现，未来的真实战斗是向现有客户提供这些类型的服务，”富达基金经理李说。

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投资者可以理解更多focused on the prosaic present — and specifically on Citi’s capital management.

No major U.S. bank came out of the crisis with larger losses or heavier regulatory burdens. One eighth of Citi’s 213,000 employees devote themselves full-time to ensuring the bank meets its risk, compliance, and legal regulatory obligations.

花旗的延期税收资产455亿美元 - 近几家跨美国银行 - 反映了危机期间损失的程度。从理论上讲，DTA可用于保护Citi未来的现金流量的一部分。但花旗必须遵守要求银行持有美元资本的法规，以至于在一定阈值高于一定的门槛 - 目前为280亿美元。这是花旗的估值和部分拖累的一部分，其有实际股权的回报与JPMORGAN Chase的13％相比为9％。据CFO GERSPACH说：“如果我们的资本没有抑制，我们将与投资者与投资者进行更加容易的对话。

But it does create a further incentive to return to investors any capital not being used to run the bank. The $19 billion payout this year is equivalent to 127 percent of 2016 net income. And the $60 billion earmarked for return by 2020 is roughly the same as consensus estimates for total projected earnings for 2017 through 2019.

“One thing we have seen with Corbat is that he has been an effective allocator of capital and a very shareholder-friendly leader,” says McKinney, the Allianz fund manager.

Corbat insists capital management will continue to be his lodestar. The only money spent on acquisitions will be for those that spur organic growth, he says. He also sounds confident there will be enough capital left over for the digital technology investments that will help lure more high-income corporate and retail clients over the next five years. Should these plans come together, he says, Citi will have finally delivered on its promises to long-patient shareholders.

And if that happens, will he surrender his cubicle for the usual luxurious executive suite? “Never — though you should never say never,” says Corbat, who believes the less ostentatious setting encourages colleagues to drop by. But even if he changes his mind, shareholders won’t mind the added expense.

Photographs by David Williams; Photo 1: Michael Corbat, CEO of Citigroup; Photo 2: James Foresee, chief executive of the Institutional Clients Group; Photo 3: Stephen Bird, chief executive of Global Consumer Banking.