Citigroup

Citigroup Inc. is a U.S. financial holding company headquartered in New York. Through Citibank, N.A. and other subsidiaries, it provides banking, payments, securities, advisory, wealth-management, and consumer credit-card services. The present company was formed by the 1998 combination of Citicorp and Travelers Group. Its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol C. ^[1][2][5] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/citi-2025-10-k-2-20-26.pdf))

Origins and formation

Citigroup distinguishes the history of its predecessor institutions from the history of the company formed in 1998. Its banking lineage includes City Bank of New York, established in 1812. City Bank later became National City Bank of New York after obtaining a national charter in 1865. Those earlier institutions are part of Citigroup’s history, but the 1812 founding date does not mean that the present-day holding company existed in its current form at that time. ^[3] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/global/about-us/heritage))

The transaction that created Citigroup brought together Citicorp’s commercial banking and international operations with Travelers Group’s businesses, which included insurance, investment banking, and asset management. The proposed combination was announced on April 6, 1998. According to Citi’s account of the transaction, its organizers anticipated a change in U.S. restrictions separating commercial banking from other financial activities. The merger therefore marked a distinct stage in the company’s development: Citigroup inherited long-established banking operations while adopting a broader financial-services structure. ^[2] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/global/about-us/heritage/1998/momentous-encounter-leads-to-merger))

That distinction is useful when reading descriptions of Citi. *Citigroup Inc.* names the parent company; *Citibank, N.A.* names a national bank within the group; and *Citi* is used more broadly across the organization. A reference to an activity, balance sheet, or regulatory action involving one of these entities does not necessarily describe every company in the group. For example, a supervisory order against Citibank addresses the bank, while a separate order against Citigroup addresses the holding company. ^[5][6][7] ([federalreserve.gov](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/files/enf20240710a1.pdf))

Businesses and operating structure

Citigroup reports activities across five principal businesses. Its third-quarter 2026 financial supplement identifies them as Services, Markets, Banking, Wealth, and U.S. Consumer Cards. The supplement also reports an All Other category, which includes activities outside those five businesses. These are management and reporting categories; they should not be mistaken for five separate banks or for a complete list of Citigroup’s legal subsidiaries. ^[4] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Earnings/Q32026/2026fsqtr3rslt.pdf))

**Services** encompasses activities used by institutional clients to move and administer money and securities. Payments, cash-management, and securities-related services connect this business to companies and financial institutions conducting operations across jurisdictions. The economic role of these services differs from that of a conventional loan: a client may need to make payments, hold operating balances, or administer securities even when it is not seeking new borrowing. Citi reports Services as a separate business rather than combining all such activity with its consumer operations. ^[4] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Earnings/Q32026/2026fsqtr3rslt.pdf))

**Markets** covers activities related to trading and providing financial products to institutional clients. **Banking** includes corporate and investment-banking activities. Although the two businesses can serve some of the same clients, Citi presents their results separately. Market activity can expose a financial group to changes in trading conditions and asset prices, while corporate lending and advisory activity has different revenue and risk characteristics. The separate segment presentation helps readers avoid treating all institutional revenue as a single source of income. ^[4] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Earnings/Q32026/2026fsqtr3rslt.pdf))

**Wealth** is the group’s wealth-management reporting business. **U.S. Consumer Cards** is its U.S. credit-card reporting business. Credit-card lending has a different customer base and credit-risk profile from services provided to large institutions. The business names also reflect a reporting change: the third-quarter 2026 supplement uses *U.S. Consumer Cards*, whereas Citi’s fourth-quarter 2025 supplement used *U.S. Personal Banking*. Readers comparing periods should check the definitions and reconciliations accompanying the relevant reports rather than assume that similarly named segments have identical boundaries. ^[4][10] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Earnings/Q32026/2026fsqtr3rslt.pdf))

Financial reporting and funding

Citigroup’s consolidated results combine activities with different sources of revenue and risk. Net interest income reflects the difference between interest earned and interest paid, while non-interest revenue includes other forms of income reported by the group. Operating expenses and provisions for credit losses affect how much revenue becomes profit. Because the mix of lending, payments, trading, and other activities changes, a movement in total revenue alone does not explain the performance of each business. Citi’s financial supplement presents both consolidated figures and segment results for that reason. ^[4] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Earnings/Q32026/2026fsqtr3rslt.pdf))

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, Citigroup reported revenue of approximately $23.8 billion and net income of approximately $5.2 billion. It reported a common equity tier 1 capital ratio of 12.8% for the quarter. These are dated measures, not permanent characteristics of the company: revenue and net income measure a period of activity, whereas a capital ratio describes capital relative to risk-weighted assets at a reporting date. Comparisons also require attention to unusual items. Citi noted that its reported third-quarter 2025 net income included a goodwill impairment associated with an agreement to sell a stake in Banamex. ^[1] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Earnings/Q32026/2026prqtr3rslt.pdf))

The parent company’s consolidated statements and a subsidiary bank’s accounts answer different questions. Citibank’s deposits and banking obligations belong to a legally distinct institution within the group, while Citigroup’s consolidated disclosures present the broader enterprise. The distinction matters for interpreting supervisory actions, capital figures, and deposit insurance: a statement about the holding company’s results is not, by itself, a statement that every product offered under the Citi name is an insured bank deposit. ^[4][5] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Earnings/Q32026/2026fsqtr3rslt.pdf))

The 2008 financial crisis

Citigroup incurred substantial mortgage-related losses during the financial crisis and raised private capital before receiving U.S. government support in 2008. Citi’s historical account states that it received $25 billion through the Troubled Asset Relief Program in October 2008 and a further $20 billion later that year. It also entered an arrangement involving loss-sharing on a pool of loans and securities. These interventions are central to the company’s history because they show how losses at a large, interconnected financial group became a matter of concern beyond its shareholders. ^[9] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/global/about-us/heritage/2007/amid-economic-turmoil-citi-recapitalizes))

In 2009, Citi reorganized its activities to distinguish a core banking franchise from businesses and assets it intended to reduce or leave. The episode illustrates why the size of a financial institution cannot be understood only through its branch network or consumer deposits. Mortgage exposures, securities, funding needs, and relationships among business lines can all affect a consolidated group’s resilience. The historical support figures describe actions taken during the crisis; they should not be read as a description of Citigroup’s current ownership or capital position. ^[9] ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/global/about-us/heritage/2007/amid-economic-turmoil-citi-recapitalizes))

Supervision and controls

Citigroup is subject to supervision at more than one organizational level. The Federal Reserve Board supervises Citigroup as a holding company, while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency supervises Citibank, N.A. as a national bank. Citibank is an insured depository institution; deposit-insurance questions concern eligible deposits at the bank and the applicable rules, rather than every financial product distributed by the wider group. ^[5][6] ([federalreserve.gov](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/files/enf20240710a1.pdf))

In October 2020, the Federal Reserve ordered Citigroup to correct deficiencies in firm-wide risk management and internal controls. The OCC took a separate action concerning deficiencies at Citibank and assessed a $400 million civil money penalty. The regulators’ actions addressed matters including data governance, reporting, and the effectiveness of controls. These findings are significant in a group whose activities span multiple businesses and legal entities: reliable information and risk oversight are necessary to manage exposures and report them to supervisors. ^[5][6] ([federalreserve.gov](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/enforcement20201007a.htm))

On July 10, 2024, the Federal Reserve assessed a further $60.6 million penalty against Citigroup, stating that it had made insufficient progress on data-quality remediation and related compensating controls. The OCC separately assessed a $75 million penalty against Citibank and amended its 2020 order. The OCC terminated that **2024 amendment** in December 2025; its termination document states that the amendment had supplemented, rather than replaced, the 2020 order. Termination of the amendment therefore should not be described as termination of the original order. ^[7][8] ([federalreserve.gov](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/enforcement20240710a.htm))

Resolution planning and significance

Citigroup’s scale and organizational structure also make resolution planning relevant. Its publicly released 2025 resolution-plan section describes a preferred *single-point-of-entry* strategy. In broad terms, the plan addresses how the group proposes to manage a severe failure while maintaining an approach to its operating subsidiaries. A resolution plan is a contingency document, not evidence that a failure is expected or a guarantee of any particular outcome. ^[11] ([fdic.gov](https://www.fdic.gov/resolutions/citigroup-2025-165d-resolution-plan-public-section.pdf))

Citigroup is consequently relevant to several areas of U.S. finance at once: the organization of a bank holding company, the regulation of a national bank, institutional payments and markets, consumer credit, and the management of a complex firm under stress. Its history also provides separate examples of a major financial-services merger, crisis-era government intervention, and subsequent supervisory scrutiny of risk controls. Each concerns a different period or legal entity, so dates and entity names are essential to an accurate account. ^{[2][5][6][9][11]} ([citigroup.com](https://www.citigroup.com/global/about-us/heritage/1998/momentous-encounter-leads-to-merger))