Citi to Hire 400 as Road to Recovery Continues

Citi’s human resources department is about to get very busy.

As the bank continues to reinvigorate its wealth unit, its latest push involves hiring more than 400 new advisors and personal bankers. Right now, the goal is less about attracting new clients and more about catering to existing ones. During Citi’s Investor Day last week, head of wealth Andy Sieg noted a $5 trillion opportunity to bring more existing-client assets in house, 60% of which lie among its mass affluent and high-net-worth retail banking and Citigold financial planning clients.

“This isn’t a build or expansion story, and it’s not an expensive bet on new client acquisitions,” he said. “We have the clients. Our challenge is to deepen the relationship by showing them what’s possible when they entrust more of their financial life to Citi.”

Get Back on the Right Track

Citi’s wealth unit has been in the midst of a lengthy turnaround effort ever since Jane Fraser took over as CEO in 2021. At the time, the business was viewed as lagging peers in several areas, and an audit cited high levels of complaints, low client trust and less advisor face-to-face time than the industry average. Even after Sieg joined the team in 2023 from Merrill Lynch, the next year appeared choppy as dozens of senior level executives resigned.

However, the train is still chugging along. In addition to the 400 client advisors, Citi plans to hire more than 200 small business advisors and update their product offerings, Sieg said during the event. It will also renovate branches to give them a modern design with more room for advisor-client meetings, a strategy JPMorgan announced last year as well. Plus, last month, Citi debuted Sky, an AI client-facing assistant that can summarize financial data and answer basic planning or market-related questions.

“This remains a business first and foremost about people, despite the fears about AI,” Jason Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants, told Advisor Upside. “The [recruiting] is a clear signal that they are embracing the business.”

Bank on It. Things do seem to be turning around for the wealth unit at America’s third-largest bank:

• Revenue in the unit hit $11.3 billion in 2025, up from $9.7 billion in 2024, according figures shown during the event.
• Total client balances reached almost $1.3 trillion last year.

“That’s a lot of progress, but candidly, we’re only about midway to what a strong wealth business should look like,” Sieg said.