Letter to Shareholders
Dear Shareholders,
In many respects, 2025 marked a turning point for Citi and for the world around us.
For years, powerful forces had been building beneath the surface of the global economy — geopolitical fragmentation, the rewiring of supply chains, shifting capital flows and increasing competition over energy and technology. In 2025, they became impossible to ignore. Trade routes shifted. Industrial policy returned with conviction. Artificial intelligence began to influence how companies operate as well as how nations invest and compete.
What makes this moment particularly consequential is both the scale of change and its convergence. Governments are shaping industries once left largely to markets. Investment cycles that once unfolded over decades are now measured in years. Capital is being deployed with geopolitical considerations alongside financial ones. Supply chains are being rewired for resilience as much as efficiency.
Globalization has not disappeared; it has evolved into something more complex. Instead of a single, integrated system, we are seeing interconnected clusters of growth and activity. Companies are diversifying production and anchoring operations across multiple regions. A more multipolar system is emerging, with Asia’s growing gravitational pull showing up in both capital flows and trade volumes. Trade corridors linking Latin America to Asia, the Middle East to Asia and Africa to the Gulf continue to expand. Our own payments data reflect these shifts, showing cross-border flows evolving in their shape rather than shrinking in their scale.
Volatility has become a defining feature of the global financial system. Technological breakthroughs and geopolitical realignment are reverberating across markets with greater frequency. In such an environment, institutions that combine global reach with discipline and that can connect markets, allocate capital thoughtfully and operate across borders with consistency will shape what comes next.
The year Citi changed the conversation
Against this backdrop, 2025 was a decisive year for Citi. Over the past several years, we have been rebuilding the firm’s foundations: honing our strategic focus, simplifying our structure, modernizing our technology and strengthening our risk and controls environment. In 2025, that work translated into consistent performance across our businesses and geographies. We delivered $85.2 billion in revenue — our highest level in more than a decade despite divestitures of many businesses — and returned $17.6 billion to common shareholders. Return on Tangible Common Equity (RoTCE) improved to 7.7%1 , or 8.8%1,2 excluding two notable items, and we traded above book value for the first time in seven years. With adjusted revenue up 7%3, we achieved positive operating leverage for the second consecutive year. We also saw record revenue in each of our five businesses, with each improving its returns by between 250 and 800 basis points.
While those results are significant, what matters for our long-term performance and continued trajectory is how we achieved them: We focused on the right clients. We were rigorous about risk and returns. We made deliberate decisions about where to deploy capital and resources and where to step back. Business by business, we identified what we do well and then prioritized what we do better than our competitors. We put ourselves at the center of some of the year’s most consequential transactions and demonstrated the breadth of our unmatched global network, whilst operating at the intersection of international trade and digitized finance.
The conversation about Citi has changed because the firm itself has changed. We are no longer defined by what we are fixing. Increasingly, we are defined by what we are building.
Delivering across our five businesses
Our Services business, which grew revenue by 8% in 2025, sits at the center of global financial flows. As clients adjusted to shifting tariff regimes and reconfigured supplier networks, we helped them navigate new trade corridors, manage liquidity and optimize working capital across jurisdictions. We expanded digital capabilities by integrating our blockchain-based platform, Citi Token Services, with 24/7 U.S. dollar clearing, adding the euro as a transaction currency and extending our instant payments system, Citi Payments Express, to 22 markets. The opportunity in Services remains significant, both in deepening relationships with large multinational clients and expanding our reach with investor clients globally.
In Markets, revenue rose 11% as we maintained our strength in fixed income while building scale in equities. We invested in technology, sharpened capital allocation and improved balance sheet productivity. Record prime balances in the fourth quarter reflected both client momentum and disciplined deployment of capital. In volatile conditions, clients relied on us to access liquidity, manage risk and connect asset classes and currencies across regions.
A 32% increase in revenue marked a record year for Banking, reflecting deeper relationships across our Investment, Corporate and Commercial Banking franchises. We played a role in 15 of the year’s 25 largest investment banking transactions, helping to make 2025 the best year for M&A revenue in Citi’s history. We also continued to meaningfully strengthen our position with financial sponsors, a key client segment. Just as importantly, we maintained discipline in how we deploy our balance sheet, focusing on clients and situations where we can bring the full breadth of Citi to bear. That rigor is improving the productivity of capital across the firm and reinforcing the integration of our businesses.
Wealth’s progress in 2025 reflects a strategy that is taking hold. Over the past several years, we have been repositioning the business toward a more integrated, unified and investment-centric platform. Last year, that shift became more visible. Revenue grew 14%, and through partnerships with BlackRock, iCapital and Palantir, we continued to enhance our platform and expand the offerings and insights we provide our clients. The integration of U.S. Retail Banking into Wealth in early 2026 has brought our consumer deposit-taking franchises under one umbrella, which will allow us to serve clients across the wealth continuum and help them climb the financial ladder of success. We are also integrating technology to continue building a global platform designed to grow organically and serve clients seamlessly across market cycles.
In U.S. Personal Banking, revenue grew 5%, and we launched Citi Strata Elite, rounding out our premium card suite and strengthening our competitive positioning across customer segments. We acquired 13 million new card accounts and more than doubled returns in the business. We also made the decision to establish U.S. Consumer Cards as a standalone business. Cards is a scaled, national franchise with distinct economics, partnerships and competitive dynamics, and elevating it reflects both its importance and potential.
On the front foot
The performance we saw last year across our businesses is rooted in the work we have done to strengthen Citi from the inside out.
A key part of that effort has been focus. Over the past several years, we have made difficult decisions to exit businesses that do not align with our strategy or where we do not see a clear path to competitive advantage. Over the past year, we have announced the sale of our retail business in Poland, fully exited all of our operations in Russia and moved further along the path to deconsolidation and a full exit of Banamex — all while delivering consistent top-line momentum and improving returns. These were complex transactions, executed in challenging environments. Completing them, whilst continuing to grow revenues and improve returns, demonstrates something important: we can execute on the most difficult challenges without losing momentum in the core franchise.
At the same time, we have continued the disciplined work of strengthening our risk and controls foundations. Through our Transformation, we have clarified accountability, improved data quality and embedded stronger oversight into how we operate. Risk management is fully integrated into daily decision-making — from identifying emerging risks to stress-testing them.
More than 80% of our Transformation programs are now at or near Citi’s target state. That progress reflects higher-quality data, clearer ownership and faster, more informed decisions. It has reduced friction within the organization and created capacity that we are reinvesting in technology, talent and client capabilities.
Nothing more clearly illustrates our pivot from repairing to building than our work in digital assets and AI.
Digital assets represent an evolution in how money and assets move through the financial system. Markets are operating in real time. Settlement cycles are compressing. Payments, funds and collateral are increasingly capable of moving continuously rather than in defined windows. In this environment, the advantage belongs to institutions that can combine trusted balance sheets with modern infrastructure.
Our objective is straightforward: ensure that as markets evolve, Citi remains the platform through which liquidity moves. We are doing that by modernizing our payment rails, expanding digital custody capabilities and strengthening our ability to mobilize collateral and liquidity continuously across markets and currencies.
At the same time, AI is driving one of the most significant investment cycles in a generation. The demand for advanced computing, data infrastructure and energy is reshaping capital investment and industrial policy across the world. The U.S. continues to benefit from deep capital markets and entrepreneurial dynamism. China is advancing in industrial and robotics applications. Other regions are making deliberate choices about where to build and where to protect existing strengths. Those decisions will shape capital flows and competitive dynamics for years to come.
Citi is playing an important role supporting that growth. From financing data centers and energy infrastructure to helping companies raise capital and manage risk, we are working with clients across the ecosystem, building the next generation of digital infrastructure. As investment accelerates, our global network and capital markets capabilities allow us to connect to companies deploying AI, the investors funding it and the markets where it is scaling.
Within Citi, we are applying AI to radically improve how we manage risk, make decisions and serve clients at speed and scale. We have put proprietary AI tools directly in the hands of the vast majority of our employees, and our developers are using AI-assisted coding tools that are creating approximately 100,000 hours of capacity each week, allowing them to concentrate on higher-value innovation. The results are already visible across the bank. Services is deploying our CitiService Agent Assist tool to deliver faster, more accurate responses to client inquiries, and Markets is using AI to automate trade confirmations, transforming a document-heavy and time-sensitive process. In Wealth, tools such as Advisor Insights and AskWealth deliver personalized engagement at scale, improve research and reduce operational friction — unlocking more time for advisors to focus on clients and growth. And in consumer banking, AI-driven controls have improved data quality and effectiveness while cutting processing times. We are also applying AI to some of the bank’s most complex workflows. We are upgrading our Know Your Customer and client onboarding processes, using AI to automate manual tasks and reduce cycle times; and in wholesale lending, AI is streamlining underwriting and credit review, reducing risk while speeding up decisions.
The investments we are making in digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence are reshaping how our bank operates. They are also ensuring that as markets modernize and the expectations of clients evolve, Citi remains essential to how capital is mobilized and how risk is managed.
Citi's right to win
When I became CEO, our immediate priorities were clear: strengthen the foundation, simplify the firm and restore credibility. Over the past year, we demonstrated that a stronger Citi can grow. We are on track to meet our 2026 targets of 10–11%4 RoTCE, and at our Investor Day in May, we will lay out our plans for building on that progress.
For more than two centuries, Citi has operated at the intersection of capital, commerce and change. As the global system enters another period of structural adjustment — one shaped by technological competition, industrial policy, energy transition and shifting geopolitical alignments — Citi is once again serving as a port in the storm for our clients. This is no accident. We have been deliberate about building up our operational resilience through our Transformation and have been disciplined in managing our capital, liquidity and reserves, reinforcing the strength of our balance sheet. We have diversified our business mix and maintained the blue-chip quality of our wholesale and consumer lending portfolios. All of this has positioned Citi as a source of much-needed resilience for the broader financial system. Combined with the reach of our global network and our ability to help clients hedge risk across markets and currencies, Citi will continue to play an essential role in helping the system absorb shocks and keep capital moving.
The pace and breadth of change across the globe will continue to create complexity, but it will also create opportunity. Institutions that combine global reach with disciplined execution will play an outsized role. Over the past five years, we have worked to ensure that Citi is one of them.
We have proven that a stronger Citi has the right to compete. The next chapter is about demonstrating, consistently and confidently, that we have the right to win.
Sincerely,
Jane Fraser
Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup Inc.
(1) RoTCE is a non-GAAP financial measure. RoTCE represents annualized net income available to common shareholders as a percentage of average TCE. For a reconciliation to reported results, see page 48 of Citi’s
2025 Form 10-K.
(2) Results excluding notable items exclude, as applicable:_(i) the loss on sale recorded in revenues_in 4Q25 of $1.2 billion ($1.1 billion after-tax), related to the "held for sale" accounting treatment of
Citi's planned sale of AO Citibank (which was sold on February 18,2026); and (ii) the 3Q25 impact of the goodwill impairment of $726 million in operating expenses ($714 million after-tax) related to Citi's agreement
to sell a 25% equity stake in Banamex. For a reconciliation to reported results, refer to the financial supplement included as Exhibit 99.2 to Citigroup's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 14,
2026.
(3) Excludes the Russia-related notable item.
(4) As used herein, 2026 RoTCE is a forward-looking non-GAAP financial measure. From time to time, management may discuss forward-looking non-GAAP
financial measures, such as forward-looking estimates or targets for revenue, expenses and RoTCE. Citi is unable to provide a reconciliation of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly
comparable GAAP financial measures because Citi is unable to provide, without unreasonable effort, a meaningful or accurate calculation or estimation of amounts that would be necessary for the reconciliation due
to the complexity and inherent difficulty in forecasting and quantifying future amounts or knowing when they may occur. Such unavailable information could be significant for future results.
(5) For the composition of Citigroup’s CET1 Capital and ratio and Citigroup’s Supplementary Leverage Ratio, refer to “Capital Resources” in Citigroup’s 2025 Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 20, 2026.