By Christina Rexrode
Citigroup Inc.'s co-president is stepping down, setting up a
horse race to succeed him as head of the bank's consumer
operations.
Manuel Medina-Mora will leave in June, the bank said Friday. He
will stay on as nonexecutive chairman of Banamex, Citigroup's large
retail bank in Mexico.
In an unusual move, the bank didn't say who will run the
consumer bank after Mr. Medina-Mora's departure, but said it would
make that announcement in "the near future." Stephen Bird, who runs
the bank's Asia Pacific region, and Jane Fraser, who runs the
global mortgage unit and U.S. consumer and commercial banking, are
considered top contenders, according to people inside and close to
the bank.
Mr. Medina-Mora, 64 years old, has been an enigmatic figure at
Citigroup. He is well-connected in political and social circles in
Mexico, an important currency for the bank there, and inspires
loyalty among many Banamex employees. But executives in New York
have complained that he has maintained too large of an influence
over Banamex, and has never really integrated it into the New
York-based bank's standards for risk and doing business. The
Banamex name is well-known throughout Mexico, and the unit helped
buoy Citigroup through the financial crisis. Mr. Medina-Mora joined
Banamex at age 21 and rose to become CEO, ultimately selling the
company to Citigroup in 2001.
In the fall, Banamex broke apart its unit that provided personal
security for executives, after discovering that employees had
improperly provided services to people outside the bank and bought
audio files of illegally intercepted phone calls. Nearly a year
ago, Banamex had to disclose that it lost hundreds of millions of
dollars by lending money to an oil-services firm called
Oceanografia, a company that other banks had shied away from.
Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, in a letter to employees, praised
Mr. Medina-Mora for leading a "turnaround" in the consumer bank
since he took charge of it five years ago, saying that Mr.
Medina-Mora pushed Citigroup's consumer operations scattered around
the world to function together.
"Manuel has been spearheading the massive transformation of a
confederation of local banks into one global consumer bank," Mr.
Corbat wrote, noting that revenue and deposits per branch have
risen under Mr. Medina-Mora.
In a letter to Banamex employees, Mr. Medina-Mora said he had
made the decision to retire "after careful consideration and with
deep emotion."
"We must stay focused on fulfilling our commitments through the
power of operating as one bank, one culture and one team," he
wrote.
Write to Christina Rexrode at christina.rexrode@wsj.com
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