In a bubblegum pink bouclé skirt suit, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser must have felt as if she was speaking into a void as she pitched Wall Street, via livestream, on the future she envisioned for one of the world’s largest banks.
It was March 2022. Fraser was a year and a day into her job. She was the first woman ever to lead a major U.S. bank. And Citi was in a bad spot: Its stock had dropped 15% during her tenure, lagging behind the S&P 500’s 10% growth. It was the only big U.S. bank trading below its book value. There also had been a humiliating blunder in which the bank sent $900 million to the wrong place and struggled to get it back.
