“I've Had to Think Differently”

IN SEPTEMBER, Jane Fraser shattered the financial industry’s ultimate glass ceiling when she was named the next chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., one of the world’s three most important banks.

- JENNY SURANE

Weeks later, she was saddled with regulatory homework by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which said the bank must update its technology and systems to better manage risk.

¶ Born in Scotland, the 53-year-old Fraser comes to the job with a gold-plated résumé: degrees from Cambridge and Harvard and career stops at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and McKinsey & Co. before she joined Citigroup in 2004. There she served under three CEOs as the New York-based megabank grappled with losses, bailouts, and strategic repositioning during the Great Recession and its aftermath. She helped as the company disposed of almost half of its assets and cut tens of thousands of jobs, an experience she says will guide her in managing future challenges.

¶ As she prepares to take over in February, Fraser says she is planning to invest in some of the bank’s largest businesses, including its sprawling custody network and its burgeoning wealth management effort. In mid-November, as Covid-19 cases were spreading rapidly, she spoke with Bloomberg Markets via videoconference from her office in New York about her career and her thoughts on the future of finance.

JENNY SURANE: To start, I’m very curious what it’s been like to experience this huge career change at a crazy time like this. It’s probably not what you were expecting.