Jane Fraser

Jane Fraser
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Birthplace	St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom
Nationality	British, American
Occupation	Banking executive
Title	Chief Executive Officer
Employer	Citigroup
Known for	CEO of Citigroup, first woman to lead a major Wall Street bank
Education	MBA, Harvard Business School

Jane Fraser (born 1967) is a British-American banking executive who serves as the chief executive officer of Citigroup, the third-largest bank in the United States by assets. In March 2021, Fraser became the first woman to lead a major Wall Street bank, a milestone in the history of American finance. Born in St Andrews, Scotland, Fraser built her career across multiple continents and business lines before ascending to Citi's top role. Since becoming CEO, she has embarked on a sweeping transformation of the institution, restructuring its operations, divesting consumer banking businesses in multiple international markets, and pushing an agenda centered on cost discipline, performance accountability, and the integration of artificial intelligence across the firm. As of early 2026, Fraser leads an organization of more than 200,000 employees, overseeing a firm that operates in nearly 160 countries and jurisdictions and serves as one of the world's preeminent cross-border banking institutions.

Early Life

Jane Fraser was born in 1967 in St Andrews, Scotland, a historic university town on the east coast of Fife. She grew up in the United Kingdom and developed an early interest in economics and business. Details of her parents and family background have remained largely private. Fraser has spoken publicly about growing up in Scotland and has referenced her British roots in interviews throughout her career.

Fraser spent her formative years in the United Kingdom before pursuing higher education and eventually relocating to the United States, where she would build the entirety of her career in financial services.

Education

Fraser studied economics at the University of Cambridge, where she earned her undergraduate degree. She subsequently obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, one of the most selective graduate business programs in the world. Her education at both Cambridge and Harvard provided the academic foundation for a career that would take her through management consulting and into the upper echelons of global banking.

Career

Early Career and McKinsey

Before entering banking, Fraser worked at McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm, for approximately a decade. At McKinsey, she gained experience advising financial services firms and developed expertise in corporate strategy and organizational transformation—skills that would prove central to her later work at Citigroup. Her consulting background gave her a cross-functional perspective on how large financial institutions operate, a viewpoint she has frequently cited as influential in shaping her approach to management.

Rise Through Citigroup

Fraser joined Citigroup in 2004 and held a series of increasingly senior positions across the firm's various divisions. Over the course of nearly two decades, she worked in strategy, investment banking, private banking, and consumer banking across multiple regions, accumulating experience that few executives at the bank could match in breadth.

Among her notable roles, Fraser served as CEO of Citi's Latin America division, where she oversaw the firm's operations across one of its most important international markets. She also led Citi's U.S. consumer and commercial banking business and served as head of the global private bank. Each of these assignments exposed her to different segments of Citi's sprawling and often complex organizational structure.

In 2019, Fraser was named president of Citigroup and head of the firm's global consumer banking division, a position that placed her in the direct line of succession to then-CEO Michael Corbat. The appointment was viewed within the financial industry as a signal that Citi's board of directors was preparing Fraser for the top role.

Appointment as CEO

In September 2020, Citigroup announced that Fraser would succeed Michael Corbat as CEO, effective March 2021. The announcement made international headlines, as Fraser became the first woman to be named CEO of any of the major Wall Street banks—a group that includes JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, in addition to Citigroup. The appointment was seen as a landmark moment for gender representation in the financial services industry.

Fraser formally assumed the role of CEO in February 2021, several weeks ahead of the originally planned March transition.

Strategic Transformation

Upon taking the helm, Fraser launched what she described as a comprehensive transformation of Citigroup, aimed at simplifying the bank's sprawling global operations, improving returns for shareholders, and addressing longstanding regulatory and operational deficiencies. The transformation has been one of the defining features of her tenure.

A central element of Fraser's strategy involved exiting consumer banking markets in multiple countries across Asia and Europe, including operations in markets such as Australia, India, South Korea, China, and others. By divesting these retail banking operations, Fraser sought to refocus Citigroup on its institutional businesses—particularly its strength in cross-border corporate banking, treasury and trade solutions, and wealth management—while retaining consumer banking operations primarily in the United States and a handful of other key markets.

The restructuring also involved a significant reorganization of Citi's internal management structure. Fraser eliminated layers of management and reorganized the bank's reporting lines to create a flatter, more accountable organizational hierarchy. The changes were intended to reduce bureaucracy and speed up decision-making at a firm that had long been criticized for its complexity.

Cost Discipline and Job Reductions

A recurring theme of Fraser's tenure has been a focus on cost reduction and operational efficiency. In January 2026, Citigroup cut approximately 1,000 jobs as part of Fraser's ongoing effort to control expenses and improve the bank's financial performance. The cuts were part of a broader pattern during Fraser's leadership, during which the bank reduced its total headcount by tens of thousands from its peak levels.

In a memo to staff in January 2026, Fraser signaled that further changes were forthcoming. The memo, titled "The bar is raised," was sent to Citigroup's more than 200,000 employees and outlined Fraser's expectations for higher performance standards across the organization. In the memo, Fraser stated, "We are not graded on effort," emphasizing that the bank would measure employees by results rather than activity.

In related remarks, Fraser called time on what she described as "old, bad habits" at the institution, signaling a cultural shift aimed at moving the bank away from practices she viewed as impediments to competitiveness.

Recruitment and Leadership Team

As part of the transformation, Fraser recruited a number of senior executives from rival firms to fill key leadership positions at Citigroup. These hires were described by Business Insider as Fraser's "star recruits" and were seen as central to her ability to execute on the bank's strategic goals. The publication noted that under Fraser's leadership, Citi had moved beyond what it characterized as the "dog days" of the bank's earlier struggles and was adopting a more aggressive posture heading into 2026, with Fraser laying out high expectations for the year ahead.

Artificial Intelligence Strategy

Fraser has placed significant emphasis on the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across Citigroup's operations. In January 2026, she disclosed that the company was training 175,000 employees—a substantial majority of its workforce—to work with AI tools and to prepare for changes in how their roles would function in an AI-augmented environment. Fraser framed the initiative as an effort to help employees "reinvent themselves" before technology altered the nature of their work permanently.

In a February 2026 conversation published by McKinsey & Company, Fraser discussed her vision for Citi's future, describing the bank's evolution into what she called "a focused, human-centered global bank." She highlighted the role of AI, tokenization, and cross-border financial services as key pillars of the bank's strategy going forward, while also emphasizing that maintaining a human element remained essential. "Having a human bank is very important," Fraser stated in the interview.

Compensation

In February 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported that Fraser's total compensation for 2025 was approximately $42 million, representing an increase of roughly $7.5 million over her 2024 pay. The increase reflected the bank's board assessment of Fraser's progress in executing the multi-year transformation plan.

Personal Life

Fraser holds both British and American citizenship. She has been based in the United States for the majority of her professional career. Fraser is married and has two children. She has spoken publicly about the challenges of balancing senior leadership responsibilities with family life and has been an advocate within Citi for flexible work arrangements. In 2021, shortly after becoming CEO, Fraser announced a company-wide initiative called "Citi Reset Day," which designated certain Fridays as free from internal video calls in an effort to combat the burnout associated with remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fraser has maintained a relatively private personal life despite her high-profile position. She resides in the New York City metropolitan area.

Recognition

Fraser's appointment as CEO of Citigroup in 2021 was recognized as a historic milestone in the American financial services industry. As the first woman to lead any of the major Wall Street banks, her elevation to the top role received extensive coverage in global media and was noted by organizations focused on gender equity in corporate leadership.

Fraser has been included on multiple annual lists of influential business leaders. Fortune has named her to its list of the Most Powerful Women in Business, and she has appeared on Forbes and Time rankings of influential global figures. Her leadership of Citi's transformation—and in particular her approach to AI integration and organizational restructuring—has been the subject of profiles and interviews across major financial and business publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fortune, Business Insider, and McKinsey Quarterly.

Her compensation of approximately $42 million for 2025, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, placed her among the highest-paid executives in the American banking sector for that year.

Legacy

Fraser's tenure at the helm of Citigroup has been defined by the scope and ambition of the organizational transformation she has undertaken. By divesting international consumer banking operations, restructuring management hierarchies, reducing headcount, and investing heavily in technology—particularly artificial intelligence—Fraser has sought to reposition Citigroup as a more focused and profitable institution after years in which the bank's stock price and returns lagged behind those of its major competitors.

Her role as the first woman to lead a major Wall Street bank has been recognized as a significant development in the broader trajectory of gender representation in corporate America. While women had previously led other major financial institutions—such as Abigail Johnson at Fidelity Investments—Fraser's appointment at Citigroup marked the first time a woman assumed the CEO position at one of the six largest U.S. banks.

Fraser's emphasis on AI adoption at scale—training 175,000 employees to work with the technology—has been cited as one of the most ambitious workforce transformation efforts in the banking sector. Her approach, which combines large-scale technology adoption with what she has described as maintaining a "human bank," reflects a broader industry-wide debate about the role of automation and artificial intelligence in financial services.

Whether the full scope of Fraser's transformation plan will achieve its stated financial and operational objectives remains to be determined, as the multi-year effort continues through 2026 and beyond. The bank's board has signaled confidence in her leadership through her increased compensation, and the recruitment of senior talent from rival institutions suggests ongoing investment in the plan's execution.