By Christina Rexrode 

ST. LOUIS-- Citigroup Inc. shareholders Tuesday voted to approve the pay packages for the bank's top executives, giving the company's management a shot of confidence in a year in which it has struggled to stay in the good graces of regulators and investors.

At the annual shareholder meeting here, investors voted by an 85% margin to approve the compensation packages of Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat and other top executives, according to preliminary company calculations of the nonbinding advisory vote. The pay packages approved were for all top executives, including co-president Manuel Medina-Mora, risk and strategy head Brian Leach, and Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach. Citigroup calculated Mr. Corbat's 2013 pay at $14.5 million.

Shareholders also approved Citigroup's directors and the appointment of its auditor, KPMG. The votes capped a two-hour meeting in which shareholders generally gave Citigroup's management signs of support during a difficult period.

In February Citigroup revealed what it described as a fraud against the Mexico unit, where Mr. Medina-Mora also serves as chairman. Mexican authorities and the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been investigating the matter.

In March, the Federal Reserve rejected Citigroup's request to expand its dividend and share buyback program during the stress-test process, which until recently had been overseen by Mr. Leach and Mr. Gerspach.

Two proxy-advisory firms, Glass Lewis & Co. and Egan-Jones, had advised shareholders to vote against the company's executive pay. The proposal is nonbinding, meaning the bank would not have been required to make any changes even if it passed. But the so-called say-on-pay proposals, which big companies have been required to put on the shareholder ballot in the wake of the financial crisis, serve as a key gauge of the amount of faith that investors are willing to place in a company.

Mr. Corbat's predecessor, Vikram Pandit, got his pay package rejected by shareholders in 2012 and was ousted before the year was over. But the bank also took pains to respond to shareholders' concerns, revamping its pay practices to more closely tie the executives' pay to the bank's performance. In 2012, just 45% of shareholders approved of the CEO's pay. In 2013, 91% did.

Mr. Corbat kicked off the meeting addressing the Federal Reserve's rejection of the company's request to raise its dividend and expand its share buyback plan.

Mr. Corbat said making sure the bank passes next year's Federal Reserve stress test would be his "highest priority" for the rest of 2014. For the March test, the bank had proposed what it believed was a "moderate and appropriate level of capital to return" to shareholders, he added.

The statements came in front of about 150-200 people at the firm's annual meeting. Citigroup shareholders at the meeting and not in attendance also voted on an array of topics including the election of directors.

The company gave updates on a plan to move more of its offices from Midtown Manhattan to offices in lower Manhattan. The company's chairman, Michael O'Neill, also committed to webcasting the firm's next annual meeting.

The shareholder session for the third-largest U.S. bank by assets comes amid a choppy year for the firm's top executives. On April 14, the bank reported better than expected first quarter earnings, giving Mr. Corbat a much needed win.

At the meeting Tuesday, Mr. Corbat repeated statements he made during the bank's first-quarter earnings report: He doesn't believe that the Fed has problems with the bank's underlying business model, strategy or capital levels. But just what the Fed's problems might be, he didn't make clear. Mr. Corbat said the bank is "consulting close with the Fed" to identify "exactly where they believe our procedures fell short."

CLSA analyst Michael Mayo pressed for more details on the Fed's rejection. Mr. O'Neill, Citigroup's chairman, replied that the conversations with regulators were subject to confidentiality.

"You're never going to find out chapter and verse what we learned from the Fed," said Mr. O'Neill.

Mr. O'Neill also cautioned against conflating the Fed's stress-test rejection into a broader statement about the bank, or a sign that regulators want the bank to shake up its business model.

"I'm not sure there's a huge amount of overlap" between the stress-test rejection and the bank's overall business model, Mr. O'Neill said.

When Mr. Mayo asked if the bank had an adequate sense of urgency for grappling with its problems, Mr. Corbat replied, "We have a very intense sense of urgency."

Mr. Corbat also discussed the alleged fraud affecting the company's Mexico unit, Banamex.

Mr. Corbat told shareholders that Citigroup had fired one employee involved in what the bank has described as a billing fraud against its Mexico subsidiary.

The bank CEO also said he expected that "others will be disciplined." But he gave few specifics about the bank's reaction to the scandal, except to say that Citigroup is continuing to investigate "what took place in Mexico" and is investing in control processes and training.

Mr. Corbat called the fraud "a damaging example of how ethical failures can jeopardize everything we work for."

"It takes just one person to jeopardize our credibility," said Mr. Corbat.

Citigroup shares rose 1.4% in afternoon trading and have fallen 6.6% so far this year, compared with small gains for the S&P 500 index of large companies and the KBW Bank Index.

Write to Christina Rexrode at christina.rexrode@wsj.com

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