Citigroup will exit its Mexican retail banking business after nearly a century of operating in the country, in the latest sign of the lender’s shrinking global ambitions under chief executive Jane Fraser.
The group said it would retreat from consumer and small and medium-sized business banking, which it mostly does via its Banamex subsidiary. The move is part of Fraser’s “strategic refresh” of Citi, a sprawling international lender that is trying to close the profitability gap with its larger US peers.
Citi said it could exit the businesses by selling them or spinning them off into a new public company. It will keep its investment bank and private bank in Mexico, along with its unit that caters to institutional clients in the country.