Citi’s MDs outside of America aren’t very rich

With all the big American banks disclosing their Pillar 3 reports – and therefore compensation for senior bankers – one tear can now be shed for some bankers. Specifically, those at Citi.

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Citi’s investment banking MRTs in London were paid an average of $1.27m each: $594k in salaries, $679k in bonuses. Material Risk Takers are the most well-paid and important people at a bank – in practice, this means traders with large positions and investment banking managing directors.

That’s a pretty penny, but it’s well below the $1.67m on average that Citi’s peers paid their investment banking MRTs – $738k in salaries, and $936k in bonuses. On average, a Citi banking MRT earned 24% less in compensation than a peer employed by a fellow-American bank.

The situation isn’t much better in Europe. In fact, it’s worse. The average Citi MRT working for Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG earned just €504k in fixed compensation and €457k in variable compensation in 2024 – a total of €961k. Their four similar-sized American peers paid on average €753k in fixed compensation, and €696k in variable compensation in the same time period, for a total of €1.4m. Citi paid its MRTs 34% less than its peers, on average.

The biggest difference is likely at the top end of the scale: those earning over €5m. Although these figures aren’t exclusively for investment bankers, Citi had 9 such people in London and Europe, compared to 16 at Bank of America, 19 at Morgan Stanley, 32 at JPMorgan, and 34 at Goldman Sachs. Citi trails far, far behind its peers.

There’s one domain in which it reigns supreme, however: cuts. Citi cut 46 MRTs in the UK and Europe in 2024, way, way more than its peers: BofA cut 14 people, Morgan Stanley cut 8, JPMorgan cut 29, and Goldman cut 7.

Of course, there is every possibility that Citi’s lack of high-earning MDs is a positive sign. Perhaps the bank enjoys a flatter payment hierarchy than its peers – and perhaps its rank-and-file enjoys higher compensation as a result of its poor MRT pay.

The bank will likely stay on top of that leaderboard in 2025: it was cutting “long-serving” managing directors in London this month, with new banking chief Vis Raghavan needing to make room for his shiny new JPMorgan hires, including former colleagues Achintya Mangla, Sid Punshi, and Alok Gupte.

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