Dive Brief:

• Citi paid CEO Jane Fraser $42 million for 2025, the bank disclosed Thursday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
• The compensation total marks a 21.7% raise from 2024, when she received $34.5 million.
• The pay package would make Fraser either the fourth- or fifth-highest-paid CEO among the six largest U.S.-based global systemically important banks. Bank of America has yet to report CEO pay data for last year. Fraser ranked fourth last year, ahead of Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick and Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf but behind Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and BofA’s Brian Moynihan.

Dive Insight:

Citi’s pay package puts Fraser, the only woman running a U.S.-based Wall Street bank, in line with two trends:

• She received more than $40 million for her work in 2025. That appears to be a new benchmark in bank CEO pay, as all five U.S. G-SIBs that have disclosed 2025 compensation are paying their chief executives that amount or higher.
• She saw a more than 20% increase in pay. All but Dimon, among U.S. G-SIB CEOs, counted raises of 20% or more, led by Pick, at 32.8%. The Morgan Stanley CEO leapfrogged Fraser among best-paid bank leaders last year. Dimon received the slightest raise, at 10.3%. By comparison, Fraser saw a 33% raise in 2024.

Fraser’s pay breaks down to a $1.5 million base salary, a $6.075 million cash incentive, $14.175 million in deferred stock and $20.25 million in variable performance share units.

Not counted among the compensation package is a $25 million one-time equity award Citi announced in October, when the bank made Fraser its chair, in addition to CEO.

Fraser’s compensation “reflects her work to meaningfully strengthen Citi’s performance throughout 2025, her strategic vision and … the continued execution of the bold choices she has made to position the firm for further growth,” the bank said Thursday.

One component of that is the bank’s long-term project to modernize its internal technology – an effort the bank has dubbed “transformation,” usually with a capital T.

“Citi has advanced its transformation, with more than 80% of our programs at or near … target state,” the bank said Thursday.  

Citi said Thursday it is “nearing the completion” of the effort to design and implement a fresh framework for assessing how managers control risks. The bank is also upgrading how it ensures compliance with capital requirements and business forecasting, it said. Further, Citi is enhancing its data management processes, it said Thursday. 

To that end, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency withdrew a 2024 amendment to an earlier consent order over the bank’s issues in risk management, data governance and internal controls.

Also among the factors Citi credited in its disclosure Thursday, Fraser oversaw the bank’s exit from three foreign retail markets in 2025: Poland, Russia and Mexico. In the latter, Citi agreed to sell a 25% stake in Banamex to Mexican billionaire Fernando Chico Pardo – and closed that transaction in three months.

Further, the bank continued into the third year of its reorganization, marrying its retail operations with its wealth vertical and continuing a medium-term goal of shedding 20,000 jobs from Citi’s 2023 workforce.

Citi outperformed several of its peers in 2025, with its stock value rising 35.4% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance.