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We are excited to have our next speaker. I'm Bryan Keane, of course, and it's about the 25th time I've said I cover fintech here for Citi Research. And we're excited to have my Citi colleague, Pam Habner, who is the Head of U.S. cards. And we have a great list of questions here for Pam to go through and talk a little bit about what we're doing in the cards business at Citi. So first off, really excited to have you here, Pam. Thanks for coming.

Thank you so much. I'm delighted to be here.

Maybe you could just talk a little bit to this audience that might not know you as well. You can walk us through a little bit about your background and what led you to your current role of U.S. Consumer Cards business at Citi.

Sure. So I started off my career as a consultant. I worked at Bain & Company and I always say we're recovering consultants. We never quite give that up. And then I decided that I really wanted to pursue a career in general management. So I joined American Express, where I worked for about 20 years in almost every role you can imagine on the card issuing side, not the network side, a little bit in the commercial area but mostly on the consumer side, managing products and acquisitions and all kinds of interesting things. I did do a dot-com detour. So I left Amex for 3 years and I worked at 2 adtech start-ups. One was called LinkShare, the first affiliate marketing company and the other was DoubleClick, the first ad serving company. So I have a little bit of fintech in my background.

I went back to American Express. And then after many years, I moved over to JPMorgan. And there, I worked in the credit card business for a couple of years, leading the proprietary products, launching Sapphire Reserve and a whole bunch of other things and then also led the retail branch banking and wealth management team. So that was a very different job over in the retail bank and wealth side. And that's when I got introduced to Citi and the amazing leadership team at Citi. I met Jane, Anand Selva and a bunch of other folks. And I never thought I was going to leave JPMorgan but I got so inspired by being part of the next chapter of this great company that I joined Citi in the summer of 2020, right in the midst of the pandemic and we've been on a journey ever since then to obviously transform the company and in the card business to transform the business and just excited this year to bring the 2 different card businesses at Citi, what was called -- we call it legacy branded cards and Citi Retail Services into one unified franchise that is now 1 of the 5 main businesses at Citi.

All right. That was awesome. I was thinking maybe we even start higher level up because we get at Citi such a good look at the health of the U.S. consumer. Maybe you could just talk about the -- what you're seeing in activity levels and what the outlook might be for the holiday season given your view on the consumer?

Yes. So I would say, despite a very uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, the U.S. consumer remains incredibly resilient. We're seeing very strong consumer spending. In third quarter, we saw spending up 11%. We see loans at a strong level as well, 6%. So the consumer is shopping, is borrowing but in a very disciplined way. So we feel very positive about our base. Now as a reminder, Citi operates in largely the prime segment. 86% of our customers are FICO 660 or greater. So we're not fully reflective of all elements of the U.S. consumer but the place that we play in the prime space remains very strong. We do see higher spending in the higher FICO segment. That's always been the case. But we see pretty strong growth at every FICO level, every band. And so people often ask me, do we see this K-shaped phenomenon persisting? And the answer is not as much so.

So we are kind of referring it to a soft K or a K kind of receding. We see definitely higher spend in the higher bands but equal spending throughout. The broader picture, obviously, we spend a lot of time looking at macroeconomic variables. And for the credit card business and for the U.S. consumer, we watch very closely unemployment. Unemployment has been pretty low. We just saw a pretty good jobs report. So we're at about 4.1% and we expect that to largely persist. We watch very closely inflation in relation to wage growth. And in recent periods, inflation has been in -- about 3.5%, 3.4% but wage growth has been a bit higher. If that were to shift, we might be a bit concerned, especially in an environment where consumer savings are not as strong as we'd like them to be. But generally, the consumer is resilient. We expect that to continue. We talk to lots of experts and there's a general feeling that the holiday season will be strong, kind of think mid-single-digit growth in spending around 5%. We'll see how that plays out but that's what we're generally seeing.

The one thing that we do know, however, is that consumer sentiment is slightly different than consumer behavior. Consumer sentiment has been low. It stayed low. If you look at any of the surveys coming out of the midterms, you see the vast majority of U.S. consumers do not feel optimistic. They feel relatively pessimistic about the future and how their financials will look a year from now. So we watch that closely as well. There's a bit of the AI anxiety that's feeding into that phenomenon. But for quite some time, consumer sentiment has not matched actual consumer behavior.

I was going to ask about that because that seems unusual to me. Like, does it usually match the sentiment, usually matches the behavior because behavior -- we've been waiting for this recession for 5 years that's never happened. And the consumer has been more melancholy about the economy but continues to spend really well.

I would say -- I've been in the credit card space for many, many years. And I would say for most of that time, consumer sentiment tracks consumer behavior. Over the past year or so, that has just not been true. And I don't know that I can fully explain it. And I think there's just general anxiety about the uncertain geopolitical environment around us that's feeding into that. And then you add AI into the mix and that creates more anxiety. So I think it's that uncertainty. It started with uncertainty about tariffs and what would that mean and then uncertainty about wars and what that means. And obviously, there has been an impact to gas prices, fuel prices impacting airline prices. But people see that. They're concerned about it but they continue to spend. They continue to borrow in a very disciplined way.

Yes. The U.S. card business that you outlined at the Investor Day earlier this year, can you just give us some of the key priorities, what you're focused on investing? And where is the opportunity to drive growth and gain market share?

Yes. So we're really proud of our card business. We're a scale business. We serve 70 million consumers across the United States. We're operating largely at our target returns, which are through the cycle in the low 20s RoTCE. So we're really proud of our business but we do see tremendous growth potential and we want to tap into that growth. So we -- at Investor Day, you may have seen, we presented what we called our virtuous cycle, our flywheel of growth. And in the card business, you have to have guns blazing on a number of elements in order to unlock that growth. So first and foremost is continuing to invest in best-in-class products. From '22 to '25, we introduced 18 new products. We just introduced 2 new products this year, announced another set of products next year. We will continue to invest and innovate on our products in a very highly competitive environment to stay cutting edge.

The second thing is to increase our investments in acquiring new customers. This is a flow business. So you constantly have to bring in new vintages of customers, growing vintages of customers and engage in the relationship with those customers so that they endure over time. In the card business, we talk about our J-curve. It's expensive to acquire a customer. It may take several years to pay back but you need to keep that flow going. So we're investing more than ever in acquiring new customers. And we just converted the Barclays American co-brand book to Citi that brought more than 2 million new customers to us. And we'll continue to invest more in organic marketing and find some of those inorganic opportunities as well. But then once we have great products and we bring in more customers, the name of the game is to sustain a strong lifelong relationship with them. And we have to do that through a loyalty ecosystem.

So we're investing in everything from strong rewards, strong travel, dining, entertainment, personal financial management tools to make sure our customers know that we have their back. We're giving them reasons to use their card that are rewards and then beyond rewards experiential benefits that create that loyalty and love for the product. And then the last piece of unlocking growth is being efficient. We enjoy a very strong efficiency ratio at around 37%. We're very proud of that. But we're constantly looking for ways to reengineer our business to be more efficient so we can unlock more investment capacity to invest in products and customers and loyalty and growth. And AI has really taken center stage. We always are pushing on digitization, leveraging data and analytics. And now AI is helping us transform our processes to be more efficient to fuel more growth.

And then just the private label cards, what's the future state of that business? And how does that fit into the objectives here?

Yes, it's a great question. So we are seeing shifts in the dynamic in the credit card space. So it doesn't matter if you look at a McKinsey study, a BCG study, et cetera, when you look at how the components of the credit card business is evolving, general purpose is the largest segment in a $1.2 trillion loan industry in the U.S., about 85%. And that has grown and will -- is expected to continue to grow at kind of a 5% to 6% rate, a pretty healthy rate for a mature industry. If you look at the private label segment, it's much smaller and has been declining in the past couple of years and is expected to continue to decline at about 3% into the future. And then you have point-of-sale loans that are kind of growing and in some ways, taking volume away from private label. So that's just a structural shift in the industry in which we operate.

So what we're doing is we're leaning into general purpose. You can see in our quarterly earnings, we're separating out our results for general purpose and for private label. And so we'll continue to invest more in general purpose. And as we grow that book, we'll see more growth. Again, if you look at some industry stats, you'll see that general purpose customers generally spend about 9x more and borrow 4x more than a private label. We see similar stats within our own portfolio. So as we make that shift, the value of each customer is more and that will also unlock growth for us.

No, that's great. And just thinking about the consumer and consumer preferences about -- obviously, we've seen big adoption in the digital wallet. So as they adopt these wallets, how does Citi adapt with those general purpose credit cards? And where do you see the greatest opportunities for growth and customer engagement?

Yes. So the name of the game for us is to always facilitate commerce with our card members in whatever form that they want to do it. When they walk into a store, they want to use a digital site, they want to use a wallet and now if they want to use an AI assistant. So as technologies evolved, we evolved with it. So first came the 1990s, the online shopping and the credit card industry and we made sure that consumers could use their credit cards online. Then came mobile and the arrival of digital wallets, the Apple Pays, the Google Pays of the world. And again, our job was to make sure that our cards were on the top of those digital wallets. And we're still on that journey. Really, it was COVID when wallets really took off. It was longer than anybody in the industry expected. But boy, that hockey stick took off and we keep innovating with partners like Apple Pay to allow Flex Pay on all Apple Pay transactions to create that stickiness.

Now we're reaching a new frontier. And that new frontier is agentic commerce. Now agentic commerce is still relatively small but we expect it will grow with the rise of the Meta Muse and the Instincts and the AI assistants of the world. And our job is to make sure that Citi cards are used by consumers either who use AI agents and assistants to help them shop or actually give them the authority to shop on their behalf. So we are working very closely with LLMs. We're working closely with networks and industry groups to make sure that card transactions are safe and secure and then within Citi to make sure our customers know that we are a trusted provider and that they should use their Citi cards. The goal is to make sure that we maintain our primary relationship with our card members in any way that they want to use their cards. And I think that's going to be very important in this uncertain world of AI. We believe consumers will care very much about the safety and security of their transactions and they can trust an institution like Citi.

Yes. So I was going to dig into that. We are at a fintech conference. So on the AI side, when they do make purchase decisions and manage their finances, does it -- do you think it changes who owns the customer relationship when we get into AI and agentic commerce?

I think it's our job to make sure that we maintain the primary relationship with the customer. And that's what the work that we're doing with networks and LLMs and to create the guidelines so that a customer when they're either shopping with the support of an AI assistant because your agent becomes almost your super shopping assistant or whether a consumer gives the AI assistant the authority to shop on their behalf that they will know that it's a Citi card and they're backed by a Citi promise of safety and security. Because in this new world, if an AI assistant is shopping on behalf of the customer, they're still going to rely on Citi for the protections they enjoy now, protections against fraud, protections against disputes, insurances and other protections and we can only do that if they make sure that we maintain that relationship with the customer.

So what are we doing at Citi that changes with AI that changes personalization rewards? You touched on it a little bit but just interested in thinking about new ways we are reaching the client as a result of AI.

Yes. So we think a lot about how AI will change the nature of our business and how customers interact with us. And there's a bit of offense and a bit of defense here. So I'll just start with the defense. We are leveraging AI tools to protect Citi at large. Obviously, with Mythos and other models out there and bad actors having access to those types of tools as well, we're being very intentional about protecting our overall Citi cyber infrastructure. One level closer into the card business is fraud. So we want to make sure that whether it is fraud or credit abuse that we're using tools to detect those vulnerabilities and to protect our customers, it's protecting merchants, it's protecting customers. And so we have a large agenda and lot of investments around leveraging AI from a fraud perspective.

We're also being very careful about how AIs are gaining access to Citi accounts on digital or mobile and making sure that any of those access are authorized and preventing that. But now you're saying that's just one aspect. That's the defense aspect. How do we take advantage of AI to support our customers and to gain share? There, there's 2 categories. This is more in the offensive play. One is to leverage AI to be better marketers of credit cards. So today, consumers shop for credit cards to apply for a credit card through lots of different channels but a very large one is through search and working with companies like Credit Karma to go and search and compare for cards. We are now leveraging AI, something called -- instead of search engine optimization known as SEO, we leverage generative search engine optimization known as GEO. So leveraging AI models and working directly with LLMs so that when someone is searching for a credit card, the Citi card comes up.

And then using new tools to have conversational applications, not a flat card application where you fill in blanks but more of a conversational application that's much easier for customers to maneuver through. And so that's -- there's a whole body of work about marketing credit cards using AI. And then the very last bucket is how can we use AI to power our products? I jokingly use the term musify. How can we musify our customer experience? If someone comes to a Citi site and they have a Strata card and they have 100,000 points and they want to book a trip, we want to have a conversational interaction with them to help them book that trip in the same way you might if you're using Muse as opposed to a very static way of typing in a departure date and departure and typing in and looking for a flight, it will be a conversational type of experience. And we think all of those things are important to invest in and they're in -- they're on our road map now.

Yes. I was going to say, how long will some of those things take before you can get a full conversation going on?

I think it's imminent.

Yes. Awesome. We have a lot of fintechs here and I always try to think about financial institutions like Citi, thinking about friends and partners and frenemies in all the different ways. So Citi obviously operates with all these, competing with banks in lendings and payments. So just trying to think about across the fintech landscape, which companies do you consider more potential to help Citi grow and which competitors like neobanks or buy now, pay later providers or others that you're a little more concerned on taking share?

Yes. So first of all, Citi as an institution banks many, many fintech companies and the like. So we have a very strong relationship with the fintech sector as a institutional banking entity and a investment bank. Now on the consumer side, there's lots of different subcategories of fintechs, right? So I think through the lens of credit card, starting a couple of years ago, there was a lot of questions about buy now, pay later fintechs. And were they going to encroach upon the credit card space, the Klarnas, the Afterpays of the world. And the truth is that has not really emerged as a major threat. And the reason is they serve a certain customer segment who is less likely to be eligible for a credit card. If you have a credit card, you're more likely to use your card because you're going to get the rewards, the benefits, the safety and security. If you're not eligible for a credit card, you're new to credit, that's a really great way for you to help finance a purchase over 4 equal installments.

But we were inspired by the promise of installment lending, which is why we built installment capabilities into our credit card. We have something called Flex Pay and Flex Loan that allows a credit card customer within their credit line to take a transaction and break it down into installments and to get a break on their APR for that. So in that way, there was an initial concern, would these companies encroach upon our business? Answer, no. But we were inspired by the spirit of what they were solving and we're now serving our clients with installments. Then there are other players that we partner with.

So I talked to you a little bit earlier about building out our loyalty ecosystem. So one area within that, we have travel and dining and offers and a whole bunch of things. For example, in the area of offers, it's really important for us to present to our card members the opportunity to use their card and get discounts at a range of merchants. All of the competitors in the space use that. And there, we either partner with fintechs, we either build the capability ourselves, partner with the fintechs and in some case, acquire those capabilities.

And in this case, we just announced a couple of months ago our intent to acquire a company called Kard with a K and they have a really fantastic cutting-edge offers platform. And in that particular instance, we said we think it would be best to do a strategic tuck-in of a fintech company, adtech company to accelerate our growth. There are other instances where we partner. So in the dining space, we announced a partnership with inKind. I think there are some folks here. Our Citi Ventures team really helped broker that introduction. Instead of building a dining platform, we're going to partner with a start-up company that we think has a pretty slick solution and will add a lot of value. So in general, I think we feel very confident in our position to play our own game. We think fintechs inspire us because they are very good at typically a narrow customer experience and making that really terrific and we can learn from that. In other cases, we might either partner or purchase their capabilities to accelerate our performance.

Yes. And the neobanks, is that much of a concern of their growth and that they capture more of the consumer mind share?

Yes. So we do think that neobanks more so in our retail banking space than in the credit card space. But again, I think we learn from the neobanks and we take that -- those learnings to bolster our position. But again, I don't know that we see that as a threat but as a way for us to kind of play our own game and win with our customers.

Okay. Got it. So how do you balance these increasing investments in the business and focus on maintaining the returns of low 20s target range?

Yes. I mean that's the age-old question for any general manager. It's a day-by-day battle to figure out how to prioritize investments. And I talked to you about this flywheel, this virtuous cycle of investing in products, investing in acquiring customers and investing in loyalty assets and holding ourselves accountable to be efficient, so we free up dollars to fuel and self-fund our own growth. But the way that we do that is a very disciplined way at Citi. We sharpen our pencils and we figure out what is the best optimal mix of investments to generate, on average and over time, those through-the-cycle returns in the low 20s. So that means we invest in some things that have a very short horizon, a very close-in horizon.

There are investments in automation that will pay back within a year. That's an easy decision to make. Then there's kind of mid-horizon investments, maybe it's launching a new product, a benefit or service. That's going to take a little bit of time to pay back. And then card acquisitions are probably the longer-term investment because they can take 3, 4, 5 years to pay back because of the acquisition J-curve that you have to grow through to get that payback. And so we're constantly looking at a balanced investment portfolio that together will drive that sustained and profitable growth. I mean that's the essence of our job as general managers.

And then just to get to that mid-single-digit kind of CAGR over the near term, is it -- what are the revenue drivers in particular that will get us there?

So you're referring -- so we have a through-the-cycle commitment to low 20s RoTCE. We also have near-term commitment to mid-single-digit revenue and loan growth. And I think that's what you're referring to.

Yes, exactly.

So the way that we generate revenues in the card business are through interest income. And for a bank like Citi, that's the vast majority of how we earn our money on the loans that we generate and which is why when we look at our position in the market, we look at our ranking as #3 player in terms of loans. So what do we do? The name of the game there is to acquire customers. We are playing in the prime space and really acquire customers and give them an incentive to use their card to spend and rewards but also give them strong lending features and benefits so that they revolve. The most profitable customers are blenders or transolvers, people call them. They're customers who spend and occasionally revolve.

And the reason we like them so much is because we get that borrowing interest income but they are also good quality loans and don't have high credit losses, right? So you're always balancing more revolve comes with a little bit more risk and we're always kind of balancing that risk/reward. So that's the main way that we earn our revenue. Where we're growing and where we're going to lean into the future as part of this general purpose strategy, is to get into more of the fee-based cards, which I would say has not been historically the focus of Citi but over the past couple of years, we've been moving in that direction. That's with our fee-based co-brand cards.

So our AAdvantage portfolio has several fee-based products as well as our new Strata family of products that come with annual fees. And so those annual fees are cards -- are a nice complement to our interest income. And then we're looking at other new ways to earn fee revenue. We just announced last month that we're in the retail media space at Adweek here in New York. And that's a way for us to earn fee revenue with advertisers that want access to our audience of our customers through our site and through other sites. And we think that we have a competitive advantage in offering that solution, which will also create new fee revenue streams for us.

That's great. And just thinking about synergies, as Citi's global network client relationships and the broader ecosystem that creates advantages for the card business that may not be apparent from the outside, what are some of those synergies that you're looking for?

So I would say we have a very strong set of partners, marquee brands that we work with, starting with American Airlines and Costco and Best Buy and Macy's and the like. And those relationships are Citiwide relationships. American is a very strong relationship across our institutional businesses as well. So there's some synergies in just how we manage our relationships. And that also goes to not just our card partnerships but other strategic partnerships like, for example, Mastercard and Visa. We have a large global network relationship with Mastercard that serves not just the U.S. consumer card business but our commercial card business, which is part of services and also other elements of our broad One Citi franchise, our debit cards that are part of our retail bank.

So there's broad relationships where we have synergies across. Then we also have close relationship with our retail bank and our wealth businesses. About 60% of our banking customers carry a Citi card. So that's a great deepening relationship for us. And I think there's more opportunity for us to penetrate our wealth clients as well. And then conversely, we're looking at opportunities to sell banking, checking and savings and accounts into our card customers. So we have 70 million U.S. card customers. We share mobile and digital assets. And so we use those to make those banking relationships. So there's a lot of really productive cross-sell that goes on in the consumer space because the name of the game for us there is to create these multi-relationship customers. We call them MRCs, multi-relationship customers. So if a customer has a credit card and a banking relationship and a wealth relationship, that's a really deep relationship and one that we can grow.

Awesome. Maybe just to close, I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the change in culture. I see it every day in Citi from -- I've been here a little over a year. And then just as you sum up the card business, maybe you could just give us a couple of the key takeaways.

Sure. So I feel like the cultural change that Jane has orchestrated since taking on the role of CEO is really palpable. It's exciting to be at Citi. It's exciting to be at the card business, now, 1 of the 5 businesses. And I think the feeling that I get is it's a winning culture. We want to deliver the best value for our customers. Customers are at the center of all we do and we want to win in the market. And Jane, I think, has come out with a phrase that we're all adopting because it really resonates is, to be the best, we have to beat the best. So we're doubling down on investments in our products, our customer experience to make sure that we deliver the best for our customers and we win in the market.

And there's just a lot of energy. I think when I first joined 6 years ago, as I said, it was the heart of the pandemic. Obviously, we had some regulatory things that we had to attend to and that was kind of the focus. We're now kind of coming out and it feels like a real growth-oriented culture right now. And I think there's a culture -- it's a winning culture, it's a culture of accountability, a culture of collaboration, this notion of One Citi, people actually talk about that in the hallways. So it's a really exciting time right now at the firm.

Yes. And then any just last final kind of summary thoughts on the U.S. card business for takeaways.

Yes. So just to kind of reiterate, we're really proud of the position that we have as the #3 player, serving 70 million customers around the United States but we do feel there's so much more that we can do, leveraging our proven business model, increasing investments in products and customers and loyalty and really being a digital AI-led company. The amount of focus we have now to leverage AI to protect the firm, to power our products, to reimagine processes and to make our people more efficient and more successful in their day-to-day jobs is really paramount and a lot of energy and focus around that. So we put that all together. We're excited about our position but we feel like there's even more that we can do to unlock the full potential of this card business.

Well, Pam, we really appreciate you being here. It's part of the culture of Citi. So thanks for being at the fintech conference and thanks for doing us.

It's my pleasure. Thanks, everybody, for having me.

Hello, and welcome to Citi's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Today's call will be hosted by Margo Pilic, Head of Citi Strategy, M&A and Investor Relations. [Operator Instructions] Also as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

Ms. Pilic, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you all for joining our third quarter 2026 earnings call. I am joined today by our Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Jane Fraser; and our Chief Financial Officer, Gonzalo Luchetti.

I'd like to remind you that today's presentation, which is available for download on our website, citigroup.com, may contain forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of factors, including those described in our earnings materials as well as in our SEC filings.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Jane.

Thank you, Margo, and good morning to everyone. This morning, we reported net income of $5.2 billion for the third quarter with an EPS of $2.85 and an RoTCE of 11.5%. Our returns improved meaningfully in Services, Banking, Wealth and U.S. Consumer Cards. The firm's RoTCE grew by 180 basis points over last year, and our net income was up 17%. With revenues up 8% year-over-year, we delivered our best third quarter revenue in a decade, and we saw revenue growth in 4 out of our 5 businesses.

As previously shared, we pulled some of our planned investments and severance into this quarter. We remain very intentional around our expenses and our investments in talent and technology. Even with this pull forward, we delivered positive operating leverage, holding expense growth to 3%, excluding last year's notable item. Our overall performance continues to demonstrate the disciplined and consistent execution of our strategy.

Now let's go through our 5 businesses. This was another standout quarter in Services, with revenues up 15%. Growth was broad-based across every driver from deposits to commercial card spend and we saw continued momentum in trade loans and cross-border activity across the network. We continue to lead through innovation, bringing new real-time capabilities to our clients with the launch of Citi Token Services in the UAE and Japan and the introduction of Custody+. Assets under custody and administration grew by 16%, and we are laser-focused on winning and onboarding further new mandates.

In Markets, revenues were up 6%. Equities revenues were up 14% driven by our performance in prime and in Asia, where we have been investing to gain share. FICC was up 4%. Rates was pressured by the trading environment, but we saw good growth in FX and spread products both stable revenue streams.

In Banking, revenues were up 6%. We performed particularly well in ECM, where we played meaningful roles in the 6 largest transactions of the quarter, including leading SK hynix, the largest-ever IPO of an Asian-based issuer. And in leveraged finance, we led SoftBank's $11 billion high-yield offering, the largest ever of its kind. I am proud of these wins and how our client relationships and bankers, including the new talent we have attracted, allowed us to land these mandates. As you've seen this quarter, we are continuing to invest responsibly in high-quality talent to build on our strengths and fill identified gaps in our franchise.

Wealth's performance continues to steadily improve with growth across all 3 businesses. RoTCE was over 14%, significantly higher than last year. We brought in $38 billion in net new investment assets this quarter, up over 100% from a year ago. We continue to launch new offerings such as Premium Boost to deepen client relationships and are seeing strong uptake of our Wealth offering by our retail bank clients.

In U.S. Consumer Cards, revenues were flat as a result of higher partner payments. At the same time, our general purpose portfolio drove 6% growth in total average loans. We are increasing investment in this business, both through our deep relationships with key partners and differentiated rewards for our customers, as you saw with the acquisition of Kard. With returns of over 21% in the quarter, this is already a very attractive business and the benefits of our investments will continue to scale over time.

In Legacy Franchises, we closed on the sale of a 1.4% equity stake of Banamex, bringing the total amount divested so far to 49%. We're now busy preparing for Banamex's deconsolidation from Citi next year. The IPO would happen after that when market conditions allow and when the usual regulatory requirements are met. At that point, our international consumer divestitures will be nearly complete.

Turning to capital. We returned over $4 billion to our shareholders this quarter, including $3 billion in share buybacks. We have also utilized about $900 million of our disallowed DTA so far this year. Slightly above the path we discussed at Investor Day in May. Our tangible book value per share rose 6% to $101.59. And our CET1 ratio stood at 12.8%, and remains about 120 basis points above our current regulatory minimum.

Now I know that the opportunities and risks that AI presents are on everyone's mind. Our transformation has modernized our core technology platform, giving us the foundation we need to implement AI firm-wide. As I've said before, we're approaching AI through 4 lenses: how it can help us grow; how we can deploy it to operate more efficiently; how we can teach our people to use these new capabilities; and how we can strengthen our defenses given the enhanced threat environment we and our clients face. I've talked frequently in the past about what we're doing on the first 3, and we're excited about the top line benefits and the efficiencies we are delivering and the many opportunities to do more for our clients. But let me spend a minute on the fourth lens.

Our cyber defense strategy is about being on the front foot about moving fast and retaining trust. We don't wait for risks to happen. We're constantly preparing and improving our defenses. We're in the business of managing risk every day, and this is no different. We've been hardening our systems and running challenging and disruptive scenarios to stress test our defenses and our responses. We then modify our playbooks based on what we've learned, so we're ready before an event occurs, not after. We are focused on our resilience and working with our peers and regulators on reducing systemic risk even as we deploy AI to improve the performance of our firm.

Finally, on the macro environment. Conditions did soften a bit during the third quarter. And while various headwinds, most recently, higher energy prices and tighter monetary policies have been challenging, the global economy has held up remarkably well. In the U.S., whilst much has been made of the AI boom, the consumer is still driving much of the growth, the labor market is stable and companies remain active. Our near-term economic outlook remains positive. China is seeing similar benefits from AI, but without the consumer spend needed for balanced growth. And so their economy leans heavily on exports. And Europe remains structurally challenged.

That backdrop is exactly why clients are leaning on our network. They're engaged, and they are healthy, as you will see from our credit numbers. They're open to strategic opportunities whilst being keenly aware that there could be more disruptions ahead. Our focus is on delivering our network and providing the intellectual firepower to help them compete more effectively, raise capital or manage their supply chains. They know we will be at their side no matter what environment they face.

This quarter was another proof point of our consistent execution and delivery in the face of a dynamic environment. In terms of the journey ahead, as you know, we expect to exceed this year's RoTCE target of 10% to 11%, even as we pull forward the investments to support our near-term target of 11% to 13%. But these are simply the next waypoints on our path to reach 14% to 15% in a sustainable manner, which we will do.

With that, let me turn it to Gonzalo, and then we will both be delighted to take your questions.

Thank you, Jane, and good morning, everyone. I'm going to start with the firm-wide financial results. focusing on year-over-year comparisons, unless I indicate otherwise, and then review the performance of our businesses in greater detail.

On Slide 4, we show financial results for the full firm which demonstrate the progress we've made and the momentum of our strategy. This quarter, we reported net income of $5.2 billion, EPS of $2.85 and RoTCE of 11.5% on $23.8 billion of revenues, generating positive operating leverage. Total revenues were up 8%, driven by growth in Services, Wealth, Markets and Banking, partially offset by a decline in All Other.

Net interest income, excluding Markets, which you can see on the bottom left side of the slide, was up 7%, driven by growth in Services, Wealth and U.S. Consumer Cards, partially offset by declines in All Other and Banking. Noninterest revenues, excluding Markets were up 12%, driven by growth in All Other, Services, Banking and Wealth, partially offset by a decline in U.S. Consumer Cards. And total market revenues were up 6%.

Expenses of $14 billion were down 2% on a reported basis with an efficiency ratio of 58.5%. Excluding the impact of the $726 million Banamex goodwill impairment notable item from the third quarter of last year, expenses were up 3%. And cost of credit was $2.6 billion, which included a firm-wide net reserve build of $369 million. Looking at the firm on a year-to-date basis, we generated positive operating leverage and an RoTCE of 12.6%.

On Slide 5, we show the expense and efficiency trend over the past 5 quarters. As I just mentioned, excluding the impact of the notable item last year, expenses were up 3%, primarily driven by higher transactional and product servicing, deposit insurance costs and compensation and benefits, partially offset by lower professional services expenses. On a year-to-date basis, we have recognized over $1 billion of severance, largely across functions, technology and operations as we continue to drive structural efficiencies and bring down transformation expenses and stranded costs to create capacity for business growth.

On Slide 6, we show U.S. Cards and corporate credit metrics. At the end of the quarter, we had over $22 billion in total reserves with a reserve-to-funded loan ratio of 2.5%. Our reserves incorporate an 8-quarter weighted average unemployment rate of 5.3%, which includes a downside scenario average unemployment rate of nearly 7%. We maintained a high-quality credit card portfolio with approximately 86% of balances extended to consumers with FICO scores of 660 or higher and a reserve-to-funded loan ratio in our U.S. Cards portfolio of 7.7%. And we continue to see strong consumer credit performance as both net credit loss and delinquency rates in our overall Cards portfolio declined year-over-year.

Looking at the right-hand side of the slide, you can see that our corporate exposure is 79% investment grade. And in the quarter, corporate nonaccrual loans as well as corporate net credit losses remained low. We are confident in the high-quality nature of our portfolios, which reflect our robust risk appetite framework and rigorous client selection.

Turning to capital, liquidity and the balance sheet on Slide 7, where I will speak to sequential variances. Our total assets of $2.9 trillion increased 2%, driven by growth in trading-related assets and loans. Net end-of-period loans increased 3%, driven by growth in Markets and Banking. Our $1.5 trillion deposit base remains well diversified and increased 1%, primarily driven by growth in Services. We reported a 114% average LCR and over $1 trillion of available liquidity resources.

In the third quarter, we continued to deploy capital to support accretive client activity, while at the same time, prioritizing the return of capital to common shareholders as evidenced by the $3 billion in buybacks and the 12% increase in our quarterly common stock dividend. We ended the quarter at 12.8% CET1 ratio under the binding standardized approach, approximately 120 basis points above the 11.6% regulatory capital requirement.

Turning to the businesses on Slide 8, we show the results for services in the third quarter. Revenues were up 15%, driven by growth across both TTS and Securities Services, reflecting the benefits of our continued investments in the business. NII increased 17%, driven by higher average deposit balances and deposit spreads. NIR increased 12%, driven by growth in fees as we continue to see strong activity and engagement with both corporate and commercial clients, driving momentum across underlying KPIs.

Expenses increased 10% primarily driven by higher severance as well as volume and revenue-related expenses. Average loans increased 14%, largely driven by working capital loans and export agency finance. Average deposits increased 16%, primarily driven by growth in the U.S. Services generated positive operating leverage, net income of $2.6 billion and an RoTCE of 31.2% in the quarter and 29.7% year-to-date.

Turning to Markets on Slide 9. Revenues were up 6%, driven by growth across both Equities and Fixed Income. Fixed income revenues were up 4%, with spread products and other fixed income up 13%, driven by an increase in spread products financing revenues. And rates and currencies was flat with growth in currencies on higher volumes offset by lower revenues in rates. Equities revenues were up 14%, driven by continued momentum in prime services as balances grew by over 40%, partially offset by a decline in derivatives revenues.

Expenses increased 7%, driven by higher transactional expenses and compensation. Average loans increased 30%, primarily driven by spread products as we execute against our Investor Day strategy to drive more stable financing revenues. Markets delivered net income of $1.7 billion and RoTCE of 12.3% in the quarter and 15.9% year-to-date.

Turning to Banking on Slide 10. Revenues were up 6%, driven by growth in Investment Banking and gains on loan hedges, partially offset by a decline in Corporate Lending. Investment Banking revenues increased 9%, driven by 77% growth in ECM, partially offset by declines of 4% and 3% in Advisory and DCM, respectively. Corporate Lending revenues, excluding gains on loan hedges, declined 16% driven by lower loan spreads, partially offset by higher average loan balances and commitments.

Expenses increased 8%, driven by higher compensation and continued investments in the business. Cost of credit was $23 million, consisting of $43 million in net credit losses and a net reserve release of $20 million. Banking delivered net income of $378 million, an RoTCE of 19.2% in the quarter and 17.7% year-to-date.

Turning to Wealth on Slide 11. Revenues were up 15%, driven by growth across all businesses. NII, which you can see on the bottom left side of the slide, increased 20%, driven by higher deposit spreads and average deposit balances, partially offset by lower mortgage spreads. NIR was up 5%, largely driven by higher investment fee revenue. Client investment assets were up 15%, primarily driven by net new investment asset flows, which were $38 billion in the quarter, contributing to over $75 billion in the last 12 months, representing 11% organic growth.

Expenses increased 3% driven by higher compensation. Cost of credit was $102 million, consisting of $70 million of net credit losses and a net reserve build of $32 million. Average loans were up 4% as we continue to grow securities-based lending and mortgages. Average deposits were up 3%, driven by growth in the Private Bank, partially offset by a modest decline in Citigold and Retail Banking. Wealth had a pretax margin of 22%, generated positive operating leverage, net income of $585 million and an RoTCE of 14.3% in the quarter and 13.2% year-to-date.

Turning to U.S. Consumer Cards on Slide 12. As a reminder, our year-over-year results continue to reflect the impact from the acquisition of the [ additional ] American Airlines co-branded card portfolio onboarded in April. In the quarter, revenues were flat with growth in NII, offset by a decline in NIR. NII was up 6%, driven by higher interest-earning balances. NIR was down 62%, driven by higher accruals from partner payments as well as rewards costs, reflecting our investments for growth, partially offset by higher interchange and annual fees. Consistent with the strategy we laid out at Investor Day, we saw growth in general purpose cards with spend volume up 13% and average loans up 9%, both partially offset by declines in private label cards.

Expenses increased 2%, driven by higher transactional expenses as well as advertising and marketing as we invest to drive future acquisitions and continued customer engagement, largely offset by lower compensation. Cost of credit was $1.9 billion, consisting of $1.7 billion of net credit losses and a net reserve build of $208 million, primarily driven by changes in the macroeconomic outlook.

U.S. Consumer Cards delivered net income of $851 million and RoTCE of 21.8% in the quarter and 21% year-to-date. As I mentioned last quarter, while we expect RoTCE to remain around our through-the-cycle target for the business, in certain quarters, we do expect expense growth to outpace revenue growth as we invest in the business to drive engagement and acquisitions with some of these investments reflected as contra revenues and others as expenses.

Turning to Slide 13, we show results for All Other on a managed basis, which includes Corporate/Other and Legacy Franchises and excludes divestiture-related impacts, notably the $726 million Banamex goodwill impairment in the third quarter last year. Revenues were down 3%, driven by declines in Legacy Franchises and Corporate/Other. Expenses were down 14%, driven by lower transformation expenses in Corporate/Other as well as lower expenses from our exits and wind downs, which declined to a run rate of approximately $100 million in the quarter partially offset by the impact of Mexican peso appreciation.

Cost of credit was $532 million, consisting of net credit losses of $433 million, driven by consumer loans in Mexico and a net reserve build of $99 million. And we've reduced the total firm-wide DTAs deducted from CET1 capital by approximately $900 million year-to-date as U.S. profitability continues to improve. Additionally, in the appendix of the presentation on Slide 20, we have provided an overview of financial impacts related to the Banamex divestiture.

There are 3 points that I would like to highlight. First, upon our full exit from Banamex, we expect the cumulative net capital impact to reflect the release of CET1 capital associated with the Banamex RWA, removal of certain CET1 deductions and the cumulative gains or losses over the divestiture horizon. Second, as we have shared previously, as part of the deconsolidation process, we expect to recognize an approximate $9 billion CTA-related loss through the P&L in early 2027. And third, we expect the impacts related to the deconsolidation process to be slightly accretive to our CET1 capital ratio.

To close, we've included our full year 2026 outlook on Slide 14. We expect to deliver an RoTCE above 11% for the full year, supported by NII ex-Markets growth in the mid- to high 6% range and continued NIR ex-Markets growth, driven by fee momentum in Services, Banking and Wealth, partially offset by USCC. And in Markets, we expect a typical seasonal decline in the fourth quarter around the same magnitude as last year, which was 20% or possibly a bit more given the strong performance so far this year. Given this outlook for revenue, combined with our continued focus on expense discipline, we expect our full year efficiency ratio to be below 60%.

As it relates to credit, based on the strong performance we have seen so far this year, and our expectations for the fourth quarter, we now expect a full year total U.S. credit cards NCL rate of around 4%, the low end of the range we provided previously, while the ACL will continue to be a function of the macroeconomic environment and business volumes, and we will continue to provide the businesses with capital to pursue accretive growth opportunities while returning capital to shareholders.

We remain confident in the strategy we laid out at Investor Day and in our ability to deliver on all of our commitments. As we take a step back, the results in the third quarter and year-to-date this year represent significant progress towards our goal of improved firm-wide and business performance. Our strategy is working and we have a clear path to delivering higher sustainable returns.

With that, Jane and I would be glad to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of John McDonald with Truist.

I was hoping to kick off, you could put your strong year-to-date results on RoTCE into context. Obviously, you've got the 12.6% RoTCE for the year and 11.5% this quarter. It implies a little bit of deceleration in the fourth quarter if you do something ending up at 11% to 12% for the year. So understanding there's lots of factors around seasonality and how much spending you pulled forward. Could you speak a little bit to the near-term expectations and trajectory for RoTCE for the fourth quarter and then as you look out for the next 2 years?

John, thanks very much for the question. It's a great question. And I think maybe a couple of thoughts to step in there. The first is our #1 priority is driving sustainable return improvement. That's very clear. The second piece that you can see from our results throughout this year is that our strategy is working. You're seeing the compounding effect of client intensity and execution milestone after execution milestones in a constructive backdrop, but that execution is clearly there.

The next piece I would mention is we have lifted our guidance now, again, from the high end of the 10% to 11% or a bit better than 11% to above 11%. So that hopefully gives you a sense of the confidence that we have and the discipline that we have going into the end of the year.

Now to your point, and I think you alluded to this in your question already, there is a natural seasonality, I just mentioned that in my remarks as it relates to Markets, there are other elements beyond Markets, too. And so when you think about the market component alone, that's about -- last year was about 20% decline quarter-on-quarter between Q3 and Q4. This year, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, would be a bit worse on the basis -- of the basis of how strong the year has been so far and kind of the dynamism in the market right now.

So when you flow the math similar for RoTCE, even if you look historically over the last couple of years and you adjust for the typical notable items that may be there from time to time, you do land at a high single-digit rate. And so that more or less sets you up for the above 11% that we're looking at. But you can see kind of the confidence coming through in how we are -- we've been raising the estimates over the last 30 days, a couple of times over.

As you look forward into 2027, I think undeniably, we have business momentum, you can see that on our revenue growth, right, 7% a year ago, ex notable items, first half of the year about 14%, this quarter about 8%. You look at the drivers, you can see the client momentum driving that revenue growth, so we feel very good about that. We haven't moved an inch from our Investor Day commitments. The near-term targets for returns, just as a reminder for everyone, are 11% to 13% into the '27 and '28 time period. So we're comfortable with that. And we also tested those for a range of environments, right? So we're not expecting the sun always to be shining, the wind in our backs and us walking downhill, we have tested that for a range of outcomes. Thank you.

Thanks, Gonzalo. Appreciate that. And maybe just as a follow-up, a question on capital. How are you thinking about the glide path to the capital target you laid out at Investor Day? And how do rates factor into that in terms of rates and what it means for buybacks?

Thank you for the follow-up. Maybe just to baseline everyone again. Today, we're at -- our CET1 of 12.8%, which is about 120 basis points above our regulatory minimum. As per Investor Day, the regulatory minimum that we talked about, and you were alluding on your question to the glide path, we have talked about how we are now at 11.6% as a regulatory minimum. And we -- our assumption is that we go into 12.1% as a regulatory minimum starting in January of 2028. At Investor Day, we gave a directional target of 13.1%. So that gives you a sense of the direction of travel. We continue to be comfortable with that direction of travel. So that, I think, is the key piece.

The second piece is -- and going into the buyback component of your question, too, I would say a couple of things. First, maybe restating our framework, right? Our framework is we hold capital for resilience and flexibility, and we deploy it for returns and to distribute it to shareholders. And that's kind of the staircase that we talked about at Investor Day, and that's -- hopefully, you're seeing us apply that every single one of the quarters this year, right? When you look at this quarter as one example, I feel good about how we were able to deploy our balance sheet to fuel the revenue growth that you're seeing, the improving returns year-on-year that you're seeing and at the same time, return $4 billion of capital to shareholders, $3 billion of which in buybacks, while still holding an appropriate cushion above the reg requirements to be able to navigate the environment.

And by the way, along the way, absorbing some OCI shifts that happened due to rates in the quarter. So I feel good about that ability to balance that equation. We did that in the preceding quarters as well, maybe with a bit less OCI action, but that hopefully gives you a sense of business has momentum, we do have a balanced framework in place, and we try to find the appropriate balance there, always starting with being a source of resilience. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo.

Gonzalo, on the second quarter earnings call, you talked about pulling forward investment spending, the $5 billion over 3 years to now, I guess, $500 million this year. How much of that has been spent in the third quarter? Why did you pull it forward? What are you spending it on? And does that mean after this year, it's $4.5 billion of investment spending, or will you increase the total?

Mike, thanks very much for the question. Maybe let me spend a second on how we think about expenses and how we think about efficiency. Again, returns, number one, sustainable return improvement. But when we think about how we approach expenses, hopefully, you can see a very sharp expense discipline. And that's not an initiative, that's how we operate the business every day and for every dollar. And we talked about Investor Day that in order to unlock the client-driven growth that we are aspiring to, we needed to deploy incremental investments over 3 years of about $5 billion, which you've just alluded to. And we also said that we're going to fund these investment the hard way, be a relentless structural efficiency focus, right? We talk about stranded costs, about transformation costs and about the structural efficiencies. So that hopefully gives you a sense for how we think about expense management.

So the pull forward that we talked about, maybe to answer one piece of the question quickly, is 100% inside the $5 billion, right? The $500 million or so that I spoke recently about being part of that pull forward in the second half of the year. That's fully embedded inside the $5 billion. We have not moved anything related to our Investor Day expectations.

And then to your other sub-question around how much of that landed into this quarter. You can think of it as about half of it landed in this quarter. You can see about $200 million of severance in the quarter. So that's a good portion of it. And then there's a few investments extra around technology, around marketing, around client experience that we also supported. And again, that severance is directly linked to 1 of those 3, the biggest of the 3 legs of our self-funded investments, which are the structural efficiency focus with the processes that Jane has alluded to in the past, the 100-plus end-to-end processes that we have looked at. We review those every week, and those are part of the unlocking through automation and AI, the efficiencies that we're looking to deploy. Thank you.

And then one follow-up. Like you said, you're not always planning for the sun to always be shining and the wind at your back. But the return for the fourth quarter, if you back into it, it looks really lousy for you to get to 11%. When you say the sun might not always be shining and the wind is not at your back, you did say Markets won't be as strong, I get it. But are you assuming something might go terribly wrong in the fourth quarter? Are you just giving the usual caution and caveat?

Let me go with the latter on that. Thank you, Mike. Yes. So we're guiding to above 11% which is, again, an improvement from the, a bit over 11%, that we talked about 30 days ago. And of course, there's a range. We could do better, but it's hard to predict early in the quarter, especially how some of the activity will play out in the market mostly. And so it's really anchored on that. And yes, abundance of caution. Thank you.

Our next question will come from the line of Erika Najarian with UBS.

Just so -- I wanted to double-click on John's question on capital. So I guess this is a bit of a compound question for my first question, and I apologize. The way you responded to John's question is that you can continue to deploy capital into growth as well as keep up this pace of buybacks. And I just wanted to make sure we heard that correctly because AOCI aside, I think a lot of your investors, the buyback pacing is important. And so I guess I just wanted to confirm that you can continue this pace of buyback at around these levels, even with higher rates. And in terms of the glide path to a CET1 minimum of 12.1% by January 1, 2028, is your understanding that Basel III endgame revisions and G-SIB revisions would be mostly prospective and you won't get any sort of retrospective or retroactive adjustments that could help you in terms of forward G-SIB surcharge increases.

Maybe if I jump in just in terms of the big picture here, you've heard us talking about a lot of upside potential. We've got a lot of different opportunities, which are high returning to be investing in. So as Gonzalo said, once we're comfortable around the resiliency of our capital base, which we feel very good about, we see a lot of opportunities to deploy capital into high-returning opportunities that will drive the growth and scale that underpins the presentation we gave at Investor Day and laid out that in a lot of detail.

And we know buybacks are important, we know return of capital is important to our shareholders. And we make that judgment as to what the right balance is. But I think all of our investors will want us to make sure that we are investing behind these long-term, high-return growth opportunities that will drive the performance and competitiveness of the bank.

Gonzalo, over to you for the nitty-gritty.

Thank you, Jane, and thank you, Erika. Thank you for the question. So I think maybe a couple of thoughts on -- maybe to start on buybacks and then pull back up into the path on capital. Just as a reminder, right, what we said for this year, let me start in the here and now, and then maybe, without giving you the decimal precision going forward, I can describe the shape of how we think about it. In the here and now, we just completed, this quarter of about $3 billion of repurchases year-to-date, $13.3 billion. Last year was $13 billion, and we had said earlier that we expected this year to do more than last year, which we just achieved in the third quarter. So we are, in that sense, doing what we said we're going to do.

When you think about the framework going forward, I think you highlighted what I was talking about a little bit earlier that we plotted at Investor Day, that glide path for capital for us, and let me talk in maybe regulatory minimum terms going from 11.6% to 12.1%. That's on the back, of course, of having enabled the business, the balance sheet to support the high levels of activity that we've seen over the last couple of years. And have you seen us grow various businesses, not only the Markets business, but also Banking and Services and some of our franchises. And so that is directly linked to that. It was expected. That's why we discussed it at our Investor Day.

To your point, it's a bit unknown exactly how all the rules, right? When we are done, which we should see more of those over the next several months. And then we'll have full visibility with models and market shock scenarios and so on. Really, we will know probably around next year the full impact that, that may have on that glide path. So as of now, we're operating on the basis of what we know, which are current rules. And on the basis of those current rules, that glide path goes from 11.6% to 12.1%, which obviously means we will need to build that capital trajectory, again, absent some changes from the rules.

And then what you'll see in the future is what you have seen year-to-date, we managed that very balanced framework, right, of holding capital for resilience and flexibility first and then deploying it, as you've seen us do this quarter and even in the prior quarters, supporting very strong activity for pursuing returns that are accretive and supporting our clients as well as distributing to shareholders. You can see how much of a priority it is on the basis of the progress we've made even in the last couple of quarters against our $30 billion program that we announced at Investor Day. Thank you.

And just as a quick follow-up here on the markets commentary. So just to put a framework around it, you mentioned that you continue to deploy balance sheet and high-returning opportunities. And one of your peers that is typically quite conservative had talked about deploying capital and not having that much seasonality in the fourth quarter because of all the activity levels. In terms of your comment of Markets down 20% quarter-over-quarter and that underpins sort of the implied high single digits RoTCE, is that conservatism in terms of the typical seasonality? Or is that more of a comment on mix in terms of you guys are still building out the Equities business to a more optimized size? Just trying to unpack the market commentary for the fourth quarter.

Erika, I think you're reading too much into it. This is just the normal seasonality that we have seen over many, many years between a strong third quarter and the typical fourth quarter, it's no more than that. Don't read too much into it.

Our next question comes from the line of Glenn Schorr with Evercore ISI.

So a follow-up on the equity side. Your prime balances are up over 40%. Your revenues were up 14%, still a pretty good gap versus the biggest peers. So maybe let's talk about where you're investing and what your aspirations are for the Equities business because there's a pretty big upside if you continue to strengthen the franchise there.

Yes. Look, as Andy said at Investor Day, we were late to invest in Equities and what we are systematically doing is scaling our Equities business, primarily by committing the resources to grow the prime balances, making the necessary investments in technology. And we see a lot of room to gain share ahead in prime. We're doing so with very diligent client selection and risk management.

But the client appetite for Citi is clearly there. Clients, I meet with them all over the world. They keep telling me they want an alternative in this market, and they want that to be Citi because they know and trust us, particularly from the Fixed Income side over history, and that gives us an easier path for expansion and our growth in Equities and continued momentum there. So you'll see us steadily investing in execution and I think we feel confident in our ability to continue growing there.

Okay. And maybe a similar but different follow-up on the Wealth side. You had very strong net new money flows, you had good 15% investment asset growth, but I think that the wealth fees were only up 5%. I don't know if that's a mix get them in the door, mix them up, provide more advice, but just curious if you can provide a little color behind those trends.

Sure. Let me maybe ask -- I'll answer your question directly as asked and then I'll give you maybe the broader perspective on Wealth. But very quickly, that's only the result of a couple of strategic decisions that we took a year ago that we're lapping. So that's what's dampening that growth rate on the 5%. When that gets lapped, you're going to see a closer matching between some of the drivers and the revenue. That's kind of the simplest version, I think. Thank you for the question.

And I think the broader piece there, we're pleased with what we're seeing in terms of momentum from our Wealth business, right? Revenue growing 15% with good expense discipline at 3%. We're accumulating several quarters of very positive operating leverage, and that's what improved -- what's driving the improvement on returns, right? Returns for the business were about 7.6% a year ago, then 10.8% in the first quarter and now this quarter and last quarter, they were a bit above 14%. So that gives us confidence that soon we'll be able to get into the 15% to 20% near-term target window that we spoke about at Investor Day. But yes, the business has good momentum, good NII quarter. And overall, we're seeing good traction.

For our next question, we'll go to Manan Gosalia with Morgan Stanley.

Can you hear me now?

We can.

All right. Perfect. Sorry about that. So I just want to clarify the comment on the capital side. So the 13.1% capital target for next year, that excludes finalization of the capital rules. Once we get finalization and maybe as you go through the stress test and you see the results of that, revisiting that 13.1% is still on the table?

Thank you, Manan. Good morning, and thank you for the question. First -- to the first part of your question, yes, the 13.1%, which anchors to a minimum reg requirement of 12.1% into January of 2028 anchors to current rules. So it does not include anything related to any of the rules that are in play that -- some of which have been released and others haven't, but obviously, we need to see -- to your point, we need to see what the run or the first run of the new set of SCB and then as well as the Basel III and the G-SIB components as well. So that buildup between the 11.6% minimum now to the 12.1% that I was just describing incorporates exactly and only the current rules.

I mean the second thing I'll mention as it relates to capital, which is also not baked in, and is the part that number one, we control; number two, I feel better about. And you can kind of see that even though it's still with all models, in the release results from this year, right, you can see our SCB from the peak of 4.3% coming down over a few years into 3.6%, which is the current level. And then the one -- the latest one, which obviously doesn't count at 3.3%. But directionally, it gives you hopefully the reaffirmation of the signal of what I was talking at the very beginning of the call, which is that the strategy is working.

And the strategy working means we have simplified the bank quite a bit, right? We have increased the level of accountability. You can see the progress on returns and the proof points quarter after quarter. And as you think about that, the PPNR increases, stabilizes and the loss absorption capacity improves. And all of that is a lot more within our control, and that's what we expect over time to also flow through. But again, not considered in.

Okay. Perfect. And then just pivoting over to rates and rate sensitivity. With short-end rates moving higher in both the U.S. and internationally. How should we think about the rate sensitivity of the business? And given the strong Services business that you guys have and the strong deposit growth there, I'm sure that drives a lot of the rate sensitivity. If you can just talk about that and how we should think about it over the next year or so.

Yes. Thank you. Very good question. So I think maybe a couple of thoughts. The first one, let me talk for a second about the here and now and then the going forward. In the here and now, you just saw us upgrade our guidance again of going on NII ex-Markets to mid- to high 6s versus the original beginning of the year, 5.6% -- 5% to 6%, sorry, and what we said a few weeks ago that we were going to be high end of that spectrum. And that gives you a sense for, again, the confidence that we have.

The second piece is, as a reminder, the vast majority of the bus for us is driven by client volumes. So it really is up to us having success in deepening relationships and also attracting new clients across the range of our franchise. And you saw the NII ex-Markets at about 7% this quarter. You're seeing deposit growth of 11% and loans ex-Markets growth of 7%. So good momentum really across the franchise there. And when you think about a higher for longer environment, that should be, for us, net positive, given aggregate asset sensitivity positioning that we have. even if, of course, you have to, in the short term, absorb the OCI as we just did.

When you think about that asset sensitivity, maybe to give you a bit more color there, and hopefully, not a lot more than what you bargained for is, overall, that asset sensitivity, you can see in our disclosures is non-USD from the structural position that we have across the world from our Services franchise. And so we feel we're very well positioned there to take advantage of the global rate hikes, many of which have already happened between February and now across the world. And then you will see also we're relatively neutral on a USD basis at least within 12 months because given the short duration of our portfolio, we actually do turn asset sensitive in year 2 and relatively quickly as we -- those reinvestments come in.

So net-net, all of that should put us in something that is constructive as it relates to higher for longer rates. Of course, some businesses, and you alluded to this, Services would be a large beneficiary in this particular picture. And the reason for that, even if there are, as always, some puts and takes, right? You have to think about the volumes, right, and how those will play out. There will be competition for deposits, money supply may tighten. And so far, what we have seen is the betas are performing in line with our expectations. The team in Services, this is true also in our team in Wealth, very focused on quality and not on giving away pricing.

And so that disciplined pricing and disciplined quality focus, even if I look at Q3 as a proof point for me is our deposit growth in services was faster for operating deposits than it was for the overall deposit. So that gives you a sense of how much focus Shahmir and the team have on the quality of what we are engaging with clients.

For our next question, we'll go to Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay. Jane, I guess the first question, just -- I apologize if I missed something on the capital on the back and forth. If we -- I think Gonzalo, you mentioned if nothing changes on capital, the requirements obviously go up by 50 basis points. Is the point there that if the Fed finalizes rules before the end of the year, then you have better flexibility than if they don't? Like that's how we should think about it?

Ebrahim, not exactly. The way I think about it is the glide path anchors to current rules. That's on the back of our decisions also to support business growth, and that's what we're looking at. Of course, the piece on capital, to your point, around the rules, it's an unknown at this point, right? So we have to see the totality of the rules come through, some of which have been published. Others have not yet. And even post publishing, I think we will need to see how the models are running into the first run because remember, it's going to be a brand-new set of components there, not only new models, but also how market shocks are managed and handled and the scenario piece. We have to see that come through and probably by, I think, towards the middle of the year, we're going to have perfect clarity of exactly what the glide path will look like. And obviously, we'll keep you updated along the way.

But no, I wasn't implying that we'll have perfect clear vision by the end of the year because I don't think that we will, right? I think we'll have some more information. But I do think that there's going to be some unknown still, especially on the numerical front, which ultimately is what you and us want to have. Thank you.

Understood. All right. So I guess -- and then somewhere in there for us to take away there might be some volatility or tempering in the pace of buybacks, understood. And then next, just the other question on Services. We're tracking about whatever, 29%, 30% RoTCE, Jane, you talked about the strength in the business. I'm just trying to understand what brings that business from close to 30% to the mid-20s target that you had. Is it just that the incremental growth will be so dilutive, assuming rates don't do anything? Like why should that go from 30% to, let's say, 25%?

Look, that's a -- the target we have is through-the-cycle target. But I think we -- look, we feel very good about our Services business because we see -- think of it as a cumulative business with really 4 pillars of further growth at high returns deepening with existing clients, acquiring new clients, particularly in commercial banking and the like, capturing share in some of these high-growth verticals, particularly the fintech space as well as investing in next-generation platforms and solutions.

And that is giving us a model that is pretty almost impossible to replicate as a true moat between the unrivaled global footprint, comprehensive market-leading solutions, extensive client base with ever-growing global needs and then the indisputable scale, which is enabling us to invest significantly in the platforms in the innovation agenda. It's about $2 billion of investments a year. And then you add on AI into this, which is driving further process improvements, which is developing innovative solutions for us and also improving the client experience.

So all these different elements are really translating into our ability to win new mandates, up about 40% year-over-year in our win rate with minimal client attrition, sustainable revenue growth, high profitability through the cycle. So to my mind, this is a wonderful business in which we are the undisputed leader in, and it will continue to go from strength to strength because we're on the front foot in it.

Next, we'll go to Ken Usdin with Autonomous.

Just one follow-up on the Services side. Gonzalo, in a higher rate environment, the deposit growth has continued to be really strong even sequentially. Do you anticipate any changes to how your clients use the balance sheet, given all the points that have already been made about just the ongoing strength and development of the platform? And within that, how much more room do you have in terms of the securities repricing? And can NII continue to outgrow deposit growth as it has been because you still have some more room there? How much more room do you still have there?

Thank you very much, Ken, for the question. Maybe let me start first maybe on the NII ex-Markets deposit equation. We are -- our NII ex-Markets this quarter was about 7% year-on-year vis-a-vis deposit is growing at 11% and loans growing at 7%. So we're not seeing that effect of NII outgrowing the drivers at the aggregate level for the firm. That's also true in our Services business. If you look at our the NII for the business -- well, the NII for the business is more or less in sync, actually, I guess, for Services in particular. That also depends on some of the interplay across the firm with Services.

What I would say to your question, which I think is a great question on the sustainability of growth. And we spoke about this at Investor Day, and since then, one time or two is we do expect over time for the level of growth that you're seeing, that 16% year-on-year deposit growth to normalize a bit, right? We're not saying that we are going to be able to grow into eternity at 4x money supply levels. At the same time, what you just heard from Jane, right, it's -- we are very confident in the moat that we have, how embedded we are with our clients. We are deploying $2 billion per year of technology investments on both propelling the core capabilities and investing in the core, but also innovating. You probably -- if you look back the last 90 days, we would have made 4, 5 different announcements that give you a sense that there's a lot of tech investment and capability there.

And to Jane's point, the client momentum. And so we feel good about that NII trajectory, recognizing that. Remember, this is through-the-cycle business, right? And we spoke about this at Investor Day, too, the business for the 9 years between 2016 and 2025, and remember, those years had 0 rates. They had medium rates and they had high rates and all the different flavors, right? And even within that, we were able to grow the business at about 8% CAGR in revenue terms, at about 6% CAGR in deposit terms. So that kind of tells you that we pressure tested this business through different environment and weather patterns. And so that's why even though you may see moderation on the level of growth on deposits and have those normalized, as we said before, we are confident in the trajectory that we have there. Thank you.

Got it. And one just follow-up on the earlier cost point. So if your $500 million in the second half is kind of pretty level between 3Q and 4Q, including the severance that you spent in the 3Q and maybe some more in the fourth, what do we need to think about in terms of jump-off points? I know we're not going to get into '27 guidance now, but I think there's an important debate about like does that run rate, do we still have the benefits of transformation and stranded coming down? Can you kind of maybe just try to put that in a box for us about like how we exit this year and how we start next?

I think you should feel good about how we exit this year. I think we're demonstrating a lot of discipline in the expense side. We're doing -- we're taking down the stranded costs. You see the run rate now at the sort of $100 million a quarter level. You see the benefits of the transformation costs coming down. And you see us investing in the structural efficiencies, particularly leveraging AI and automation in a very -- in a material tangible way to continue to drive improvements in the operating efficiency going forward. We're making investments both to grow the top line as well as to drive efficiency in the firm going forward. So I would say you should feel good about the jump-off point and the discipline that we're continuing to demonstrate.

Our next question comes from the line of Scott Siefers with TD Cowen.

I wanted to ask another rate-based question, this time just on the effect on customers. It feels like everyone's customers, yours included, have been just kind of remarkably resilient in the face of rising rates. Maybe just sort of some updated thoughts on at what point you would see higher rates affecting customer behavior more visibly.

Thank you, Scott, for the question. So maybe let me go perhaps around our businesses a bit on the rate impact on customers that you're pointing to.

Maybe starting with consumer. Again, this so far have been moderate increases, right? But I guess to your point, you're probably looking forward and thinking what about the accumulation of higher rates if the curve plays out as currently predicted with [indiscernible] hike, right? Okay. Yes. No, that makes sense. That's a fair question.

I think as you see cumulative effects over time, you may start to see on the marginal segment. Now as a reminder for us, right, on the consumer end, as an example, 86% of our portfolio is prime plus. And in addition, our strategy because we are -- as we talked about at Investor Day, we're shifting as our clients and the market is taking us there to general purpose cards, right? And you're seeing that in the drivers. That already tells you that, that mix will also be driving towards improvement in the NCL. So what you're seeing in our NCLs is both the combination of the resilience playing through but also our risk appetite framework and our strategy working.

So you're right, I think that at some stage, probably not with a single rate hike, but if you accumulate something that is over several quarters and something that moves quite a bit higher, some of the marginal segments probably below the FICO band, they're going to feel a bit of pressure in terms of the debt payments. And maybe on the corporate end, Jane?

Yes. Look, on the corporate side, I think we're starting to see some of the impact. So while spreads are remaining tight in investment grade, refinancing activity should stay elevated. But I think what we're seeing is the higher rate environment may impact the tenor, however. But where the change may be felt more in some of the customer behavior is you've got an upcoming 3-year maturity wall. And that is going to occur in a much different rate spread and liquidity environment. It could bring more high-yield issuers to the market, but it could also indicate some areas of potential stress. So the behavior shift we've seen this quarter is syndicated debt and loan issuance moderated in favor of loans and revolvers because of the flexibility that they provide as rates move.

And then, of course, you turn to the AI, the broad AI ecosystem. And I don't think that higher rates is going to trump the imperative to invest there. We're not seeing a slowdown in investment in the broader AI ecosystem behavior there. There's simply not enough compute. Energy remains a bottleneck, requiring more investment. That's globally, not just in the U.S. So obviously, we keep an eye on sentiment and the other dynamics that are happening there, but we're not anticipating a lot of shift in behavior.

I would say, though, we do have the luxury at Citi that we have a very investment-grade heavy client base on the institutional and prime heavy on the consumer front. So we don't tend to see -- we have a high-quality client base, too, leave it at that.

Our next question comes from the line of Chris McGratty with KBW.

If we think about capital allocation into the lending business into '27, given the rate discussion, is there any change in where you see the best returns either by product or geography?

Chris. Good Afternoon, I suppose now. I think probably a bit early to say as you think about 2027, right? Because we -- as everybody else, we have to go through our planning cycles and look at -- stare at what also was this quarter and the level of activity. The market is pretty dynamic, and Jane was just alluding to a few of the elements there, right, with what's happening with rates? What are the reverberations, right? Will it impact? And some of the questions around the maturity wall that Jane was talking about and any supply competition, right? Does it impact for some projects, especially maybe outside of the AI and tech turbo boost? What, if any, impact does it have on the industries on some of the marginal projects. So I think we have to see a bit how the fourth quarter plays out and how the rate environment also lands to have a clear picture as to -- into 2027.

Yes. But I'd also just remind everyone is when we're looking at capital allocation to lending, we don't think of it just as a product, there's tremendous cross-sell of our platform. And so this is one of the disciplines that Vis has really driven into the business and the team is how do we think of it within that lens.

What I would say is we are very attentive at the moment, given it is quite a dynamic environment, underwriting with a lot of discipline. We have a very diversified, not a concentrated portfolio. We've got rigorous limits that we're putting in place. We stress test. So if the cycles disappoint, we're in a good position around it. And we lend with -- to companies with durable cash flows and collateral. And so I think we feel very good about where we're sitting right now and our ability to support clients in the growth cycle, but also to be that port in a storm if things do turn a different direction at some point.

Our next question comes from Matt O'Connor with Deutsche Bank.

I wanted to ask on credit card. You've obviously been leaning in on the general purpose and seeing good spend volume growth, good growth in loans, and then the cost of that is kind of contra revenue. How far along are you in kind of the drag of those initiatives as you think about the revenues?

All right. Thank you. Thanks very much, Matt, for the question. I think maybe just to anchor for -- let me start with the technical and then I'll give you the broader piece. You're correct. I think in the -- we talked about how in the NIR front, there will be, especially some of the contra revenue plays through. In this particular quarter, you can see the rewards piece playing through. As well as remember, we have in place some profit sharing agreements with some of our partners. So the fact that losses are performing quite well that some of that gets shared still accretive for us because we don't share 100%. But that is what has a little bit of an impact on the revenue.

But to your point, when you look at the drivers and what we said about our strategy, which is, the pivot towards general purpose card and you're seeing those drivers healthy. And if you look back the last 2 or 3 years, those same drivers we've been growing. If you think about the cards business, always the 3 engines that one thinks about is: spend, borrow and acquire, and on all 3, we've been growing at about a 5% to 6% annual rate for the last 3 years compounded. And so that's what's driving the NII. That's what gives us confidence.

What I also like about it is this is a scaled franchise, and we are operating at around our through-the-cycle targets. So whilst we are investing and to Jane's earlier point, we are not losing the discipline on returns and on expenses as we go along. Thank you.

Okay. And then on the private label side, it's obviously a lot smaller, a much smaller piece of the overall business, and that's kind of been grinding down. Just remind us if there's opportunities to move some of those balances to the general purpose portfolio over time or if there's other kind of strategic options with that business over time?

Yes. I think what we've been seeing is this shift to more of the co-brand proposition. And so a fair number of the partners we've been in or are in discussions about pivoting to more of a co-brand, which is in line with much of the consumer behavior. So that is one of our areas of focus there. You're right.

For our next question, we'll go to the line of David Chiaverini with Jefferies.

I wanted to ask about the Investment Banking pipeline. How should we think about the pipeline for the fourth quarter?

Look, I think you should feel pretty good about the pipeline. It's a solid pipeline to say the least. U.S. is the center of the action for both Advisory and Capital Markets. We're seeing a bit of pickup in some Europe and Asia, but a lot of this is about the U.S. In terms of the pipeline Equity Markets is more follow-on driven. The IPO market continues to be a bit more selective. So certainly an option for issuers of durable earnings.

The DCM pipeline is strong, but it's supported by clients acting before rates move higher and stay there for longer. I mentioned that we're expecting refinancing activity to stay elevated, particularly in investment grade because the rates -- the spreads are pretty tight there. And as we look further out, you've got this 3-year maturity wall occurring. And the overall sentiment the deal-making is constructive. We're seeing continued CapEx, elevated strategic dialogues. So yes, I would say we expect to see an above-average wallet even if it pulls a bit back from the '26 near record levels for the rest of the year.

And the bit that's quieter has been sponsors. They've continued to sit on aged assets that are just slower to monetize. But we see continued engagement with them for M&A and IPOs. So as long as macro is stable, we don't see that changing.

And then I also wanted to ask about the AI infrastructure build-out in what ways is Citi participating in or not in the financing of this build-out? And talk about the appetite Citi has for it.

Yes. The tech and the related AI activity has been very busy for us. We -- if you look at it, we were in Equity Capital Markets, we were involved in the lead roles on SK hynix and Intel in Equity Capital Markets this quarter. Same in DCM, we're on 17 of the top 25 investment-grade deals including the largest lead left in -- the lead left in the largest-ever high-yield bond issue that was for SoftBank. So we have been very active in the AI space, really across the board, financing, advisory and helping advise clients on how they can be growing, yes.

Our next question comes from Kunpeng Ma with China Securities.

Jane and Gonzalo, this is Kunpeng, China Securities. Yes, I have a question on the Services business. It's a very good time for global transaction banking. But I'm wondering if we could have some color from the client side. I mean what kind of client activities and client demands supporting this kind of very good strong performance? And also how about the sustainability of that kind of typical client demand?

Well, our client -- if you think about what do our clients need, they're looking at liquidity, payment, custody, solutions across the board and across the world. They're looking for increasingly always-on real-time interoperable, efficient and secure solutions for their cash management, for their custody and all of their liquidity and payment needs. So it's a little bit of they want to have their cake, eat it without putting on the calories. And we're in a position to provide that comprehensive market-leading set of solutions to those clients' holistic needs.

We're seeing the client base growing a lot as we get new high-growth verticals coming in, particularly in the fintech space and some of the digital asset players, but also we've seen it in e-commerce. As the world gets more fragmented ironically, we're seeing a lot more activity. Clients moving money differently around the world. We've seen clients connecting the Middle East to Asia in a way that didn't happen 5 years ago or Latin America to Asia that had not been a major corridor that's been growing, in addition to all the usual ones that we see.

So the client base is really ripe for a platform like Citi's, and that's where we're seeing very little client attrition. We're seeing a lot of growth and deepening with existing clients, but we're also excited to see a lot of new client acquisition coming through as well.

Jane, very helpful. May I have a quick follow-up on the digital assets. You just mentioned about -- those guys are very active like stablecoins, like RWAs and other kind of digital assets. I'm wondering if you can share some color with us about the contribution of such kind of digitalization or trading of such kind of activities.

Yes. So I think the area that we've been seeing, it goes back to what does the client need? Now ideally they want an efficient, secure way to move their money around as much in an instant and always-on mode. And that really does look at a connection between the fiat world and the stablecoin. That's the interoperability point being important and the choice that we give our clients. Our idea is, let's give the clients a choice between all the different platforms and capabilities, and then they can choose which is the best for their particular need. There's not a one-size-fits-all here.

As I've said before, the Citi Token Services and the tokenization in deposits is probably the area we'd be most excited about because it's so easy for a client to move money from one account within Citi to another, taking advantage of our blockchain. But this is a capability now operating in 7 markets around the world. And it also connects into our 24/7 clearing capabilities. So that means it's not only instant always on between Citi accounts, but connects into 300 banks of our peers around the world. So that's a fabulous proposition for a client.

What I -- we'd see less on stablecoin, honestly. I think that's the nature of our client base. And they fight -- stablecoin is -- it is a bit more clunky, there's more complexity and compliance, accounting and tax for moving money around the world with it. Whereas tokenization provides them the least hassle and the easiest way to do it. So that's why we've been seeing more growth there. Obviously, in custody with digital asset custody and our platform going live later this year, and this will be an area that we will be a one-stop shop in custody and that will include for coin.

For our next question, we'll return to the line of Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo.

I'd like to return back to the implication of AI on Citigroup. I mean, is Citi an AI victim or beneficiary and the victim is the AI scare trade that your deposits will flow out of Citigroup due to more advanced cash sorting. Maybe you can address that part of the question, with how much you spend on cybersecurity, what you spend to protect customers' privacy and identity. And on the other side of that is how you can deploy AI for additional efficiencies. And I saw you move to the top 10, moved up a lot of places in the most recent AI survey. And if you could just describe what you've done on an enterprise level or how you're getting benefits out of AI.

Okay. Well, we are -- I was offended that we were merely in the top 10. I think you've grossly understated where we should be, Mike, but I'm sure we'll talk about that later. We're deploying AI at scale with measurable results. So let me talk about the benefits first. Then I'll talk a bit about the cybersecurity side.

I think we've talked about, one, we're supporting our clients on the build-out and the transformation of their businesses. So we're making -- capturing a significant share of the activity of our clients in -- as that ecosystem is mobilizing capital at pace. The second is our own adoption of AI, and that is both earning and saving us money. We're tangibly improving productivity and efficiency through the bank.

Let me give you a couple of examples. AI is accelerating our product development life cycle. So we are launching new products at lower cost and at faster speed. And we're typically seeing about 30% to 40% increase in the speed with which we are launching products. Another example, 14,000 of our engineers use our main agentic coding tool, Devin. That makes it much more efficient for us to do the work in-house. So we've been in-sourcing work. We've reduced our tech vendor spend by 30% year-over-year as a consequence, and that's still got a long way to run.

Then probably the big one, around 100 of our most manual processes have or are being reengineered end-to-end, leveraging AI and automation. This is a firm-wide systematic program. It's a very important pillar of the structural efficiencies that will further improve our operating efficiency in the near term. This year alone, we're seeing the financial benefits from AI and automation significantly outweigh the investments we've made year-to-date. And that will only accelerate in coming years because having made the investment, the benefits just will recur year after year, and we'll keep improving on them. And then we're also using AI to generate revenue and improve the client experience.

Earlier days still on the revenue generation. But like in Services, our AI tools for our client service agents are live in 82 countries. Response times have improved for our clients by 21%. And client satisfaction scores are better. You've heard us talk about Citi Sky in pilot now in our Wealth franchise. So AI is happening all across our firm and it's drive -- it's helping us earn and it's helping us save money.

In terms of making us safer, we continue to invest in leading-edge capabilities to bolster our cyber defenses and we're deploying AI responsibly. So on the cyber front, what we're -- look AI is tremendously exciting, but AI does put powerful tools in the hands of bad actors. If we're going to innovate at speed, we have to manage risk at speed and retain trust. So I'm very happy with how we're deploying the frontier model securely through a structured harness across our entire perimeter, so we're identifying and addressing vulnerabilities at speed and scale and working closely with our peers and the leaders of major industries to make sure that defenses across industries, too, because unfortunately, AIs is arriving in a world that's deeply interconnected.

I am not worried about deposit flight risk in Services. The benefit that we have of just this so hard to replicate the network we've got the multiple dimensions of it. But you can see, we demonstrate constantly, we're at the forefront and the cutting edge of applying those innovations and the new capabilities to disrupt ourselves to advance our proposition to clients. And that's why we just have this very high win rate and continually bringing in new clients and new business onto the platform with very little attrition. So I am -- you're always worried. We always -- my job is to worry, but my job is also to make sure that we do something about that, and we're doing that in a very constructive and a way that retains trust.

And there are no further questions. I will turn the call over to Margo Pilic for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. Thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you and addressing any follow-up questions you have.

This concludes the Citi Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. You may now disconnect.

For our last presentation today, very pleased to have Citigroup. As a reminder, on the table to my left in the back are our posters and marketing decks that we've been advertising all week. So feel free to grab hard copies on your way out. Wrapping up today's session is very pleased to have Citigroup -- from the company, Gonzalo Luchetti, Chief Financial Officer for the past 6 months or so. Prior to that, he was Head of U.S. Personal Banking. Welcome.

Thank you for having me. Thank you, Jason.

Maybe the best place to start is kind of big picture, start on the corporate side of the house, but we've seen a constructive backdrop of corporate activity for much of the year. Just maybe update us in terms of what you're currently hearing in terms of client sentiment and the like.

Yes. Thanks. So we continue to see strong financing activity. Capital markets are broadly open across both equities and bonds. There's a bit of a bifurcation with certain industries like technology, AI, of course, shipping also on the back of some of the supply shortages and energy where you're seeing a fair bit of capital-intensive needs and projects that are coming up versus some other pockets like auto or consumer where you see margin pressure.

Of course, we're watching out for geopolitics and what role that can play or AI as well. But it's also true, and we have to have said the global economy and the U.S. economy, they both have navigated quite well so far in terms of adapting to some of the market dislocations to date.

I guess maybe on the consumer side of the house, how would you kind of gauge the health of the U.S. consumer at this point? And just what kind of activity levels are you seeing from that perspective?

Yes. Put simply, resilience. Consumers continue to spend, consumers continue to pay their bills on time. That's the simplest version. So if I talk about spend for a second, we are seeing around 6% year-on-year spend momentum. That's more or less in sync with what we saw in prior quarters that I'm excluding from here the impact of our American Airlines Barclays portfolio purchase.

And you're seeing in that spend good trends, not only obviously picked up from the oil inflation pickup and gas prices. But even you see -- you look at travel, you look at discretionary, it's relatively broad-based. And so we continue to see that constructively. The second piece on credit is stable. Delinquencies, losses, leading indicators, they're down year-on-year.

So that continues to be to be stable. Obviously, as a reminder, 85% plus of our portfolio is prime and above, right? So you'll decide how representative we are of the overall economy given our target market. But overall, we're seeing good stability in terms of credit, good performance in terms of the spend. Of course, we're watching out for the relationship between inflation and wages and whether there's any gaps there when you subclusterize it. We're looking for rates. We're looking out for the labor market, which appears to be in equilibrium so far.

Great. I want to dive into some of the bigger drivers of the company. But before we do that, maybe we could just talk in terms of what you're seeing kind of quarter-to-date in terms of investment banking fees, market activity. Just anything else you want to call out as we kind of come towards the end of the third quarter?

Yes. So maybe before I go into each of the -- those couple of components, maybe let me paint the broader picture for a second. I think we're -- I'm very pleased with how our strategy is working in terms of the execution discipline and the results that we're seeing. And when I put together the performance year-to-date, which has been pretty strong in the first couple of quarters as well as the good momentum that we're seeing in the quarter now, I'm confident that we're likely going to end up for the full year on the -- a little bit better than the top end of our range for our returns.

So we had talked about how our guidance for the year was 10% to 11% of ROTCE. And at this point, I think it's likely that we're going to be a bit above our 11%, so the top end of that range. Now when I look at Markets and Banking, both of them, very strong performance year-to-date. We continue to see good momentum overall.

So starting with markets, I think consensus has it broadly right. We're seeing mid-single-digit year-on-year growth for our markets business, continued good momentum in equities. That's one of the key areas we have been investing in. And so we're seeing good progress in prime. We're seeing also in derivatives, good momentum there. And then on FICC, our spread business with financing and securitization, which we focus on a lot because it drives the stable sources of revenues doing very well in the same way that we're seeing good progress and momentum in our leading FX and currency franchise as well.

So both of those things contributing to that kind of mid-single digits picture for markets. And then for Investment Banking, we expect to see in the quarter performance around low single-digit revenue growth year-on-year with a bit of upside depending on the last few deals between now and the end of the quarter. True for both markets and banking. September is a key month given how seasonally distributed usually this quarter is, right, with the holiday season in July and August. So these few weeks are very meaningful. But overall, that low single digits with some upside is probably what we're looking at. ECM continues to be strong -- sorry.

Up low single digits.

Up low single digits. Yes. Thank you for clarifying the signs. It is very important to know which signs you're pointing towards. And...

ECM, you were saying.

Yes, ECM continues to be quite strong, the level of activity there. DCM is healthy, but it's more moderated versus what we saw in the first half. M&A continues to be active, led primarily by the big corporates there, of course, and with the sponsors a bit more muted. That's kind of what we're seeing there.

That's good. Let's unpack some of that. We think back to Investor Day, you talked about $5 billion of business investments that you plan to make. During the second quarter earnings call in July, you talked about you wanting to pull forward some of those investments given this constructive backdrop we just talked about.

Can you just give us kind of more detail in terms of where those opportunities for investment are? And just are there other further efficiencies we can see? And then in the context of the guidance, just are you still on track to deliver that efficiency ratio around 60%...

Yes. Thank you. So maybe a couple of thoughts. The first one is, to be very clear, we haven't moved an inch on any of our financial commitments for -- during Investor Day, whether it's returns near term or medium term or as we just mentioned, the level of investment that we intend to support the business with, which is the $5 billion over 3 years in incremental investments. That hasn't changed. It also hasn't changed the fact that we're going to self-fund those investments from structural efficiencies, coupled with some of the temporary transformation costs coming down as well as some of the stranded costs from our dispositions coming down as well.

So maybe going back to our second quarter remarks, I think what we were looking for is if we saw continued good momentum for the rest of the year, we wanted to take advantage of the option to pull forward some of those investments still within that same box of the $5 billion over 3 years with the objective of getting to our return objectives with certainty and faster, hopefully, over time.

And that's exactly what we're going to do. So now that we are in the quarter and now that we're seeing really good momentum in the business, we're looking into accelerating about $500 million for the rest of the year, a combination of severance and some of it weighted towards severance and also some other investments to support our franchises, for example, marketing and our credit card acquisitions or marketing dollars for our wealth and retail franchise and the like.

So that's what we're looking at. And then back to your question around operating efficiency, as a reminder, what we're trying to achieve this year and our original guidance, which is around 60% is basically to have a three-peat, right? For 3 years in a row, if we achieve it this year, it will be -- in each year, we are improving by about 300 basis points of operating efficiency or a bit more. So this year, it's 300 basis points would be the improvement.

At this point, including this pull forward, we're expecting to be a bit better than the 60%. So that's what we're looking at for the full year.

Got it. Maybe go to NII ex Markets. There, you guided to 5% to 6% growth for the full year versus last year. Just maybe help us think about the puts and takes of that growth, particularly around your expectations for loan and deposit growth given the strong performance in the first half of the year? And maybe also discuss just the impact of rates with the Fed potentially hiking Wednesday and obviously, I think rates around the world having an upward bias.

Yes. No, very good question. I think A couple of thoughts there. Let me start maybe at the top with what's the main driver for us. The main driver for us for that NII ex Markets growth, which was about 6% in the second quarter is primarily client-driven volumes. So we really need to have our strategy working in order for us to deliver what we said we're going to do. And that's coming on the back of our commercial intensity and also some of the investments from the past starting to pay off.

So we're confident in what we're seeing there. Maybe to piece out and to parse it out a little bit in terms of the -- of that volume, second quarter, as an example, we delivered 12% growth in deposits, 6% growth in loans, ex markets, all of this is ex markets. So that was in the second quarter. That 12% in deposits was a combination of 19% in services, and about 4% in our wealth business.

Now we have talked about in the past, especially at Investor Day, we said that, that 19% will likely normalize over time, right? That is not something that is long-term sustainable. But still, we feel very good about the momentum that we're seeing in our services business, and we're very focused on driving operating deposits in that franchise and focus on the quality.

And then if I look at the loan side, about 6%, that's a result of about 10% loan growth in services and 5% loan growth in each of cards and wealth and banking, they were all around that kind of 5% range. When I look at the client momentum that we're seeing across each of those 4 businesses, very pleased with what we're seeing, and we have a good level of confidence.

Just to not -- even if the primary driver is volume, let me not be muted about pricing and spreads. And what we're seeing there generally is, first, we've been very disciplined on our pricing strategy and the betas continue to behave in the level that we're expecting them to. We have been very thoughtful about quality, too, and that's on both sides of the balance sheet.

So if you think about deposits and especially the biggest engine in this year has been services, but this is true also in our wealth business, a lot of discipline on the quality and making sure that we're attracting operating deposits, and we're not chasing volume that is low value. The same is true on the asset side. When we are issuing loans and when we deploy the balance sheet, we want to make sure that it's recognizing the full breadth of the relationship and that we have a good degree of certainty. So that quality, that discipline to us is what anchors a lot of what we're seeing in terms of the momentum.

So when you bring it all together, that picture of volume, the momentum that we're seeing with clients and also assuming that we continue to be very disciplined on pricing management and mix management, what we are expecting now is to be able to be within the 5% to 6%. We're probably expecting to be on the top end of that range or a bit better than the 6%. That's what we're looking at now for the full year.

Okay. Maybe continuing down the income statement. Fee income ex markets, you talked about growth. Just maybe a little more granular and just walk us through the drivers you see across the businesses for the year.

Yes. So NIR ex Markets or fee income, key focus for us, a key part of our strategy, and I'm pleased to see it working. So the second quarter, we had about 18% year-on-year growth. A lot of it was supported with a great performance in investment banking on the back of a constructive wallet as well as the investments that we've been making in talent with Vis and the team driving that. So we're pleased to see that momentum. I just spoke a minute ago about what we're seeing for the third quarter in terms of that positive low single-digit trajectory with probably a bit of upside depending on what happens between now and September 30.

And then when you look at the rest of the other businesses, you look at services, that was up 16% year-on-year. Look at the drivers there, assets under custody administration was up 22%. Now yes, there's a portion of beta there, but there's a lot of alpha because when I look at that business, I'm seeing a lot of good client momentum, both in deepening relationships as well as gaining new mandates at a faster clip than we were a year ago.

Also, cross-border volumes up 13%. So I think some of the investments we've been making in the platform and also how Shahmir and the team are driving that dialogue with clients to me is playing through and has sustainability. Another piece of it is also wealth. Now wealth in the second quarter was 4% year-on-year. Now we had some gains on sale a year ago from some strategic decisions.

So if you actually look at the biggest driver under the 4, there was a 20% improvement in investment revenue fees. And so -- and that is really driven by the focus that Andy and the team have very sharply on net new investment assets. So growing that is really what underpins the momentum in the business there. That grew about 9% organically.

Our target is to be in the high single digits. So we're well on track in terms of that performance and what we're seeing there, and we think the team is very focused on that. And the last piece is cards. Cards NIR is -- we said in the second quarter that it will be consistently around the similar range for the third and the fourth quarter because a lot of the investments that we're making in cards are contra revenue as well as the relationship with the partners, some of the profit shares fall through that as well. So as you're seeing us grow, you see that -- some of that coming through in NIR.

All right. Maybe we could double-click into some of those areas. Maybe we'll just start with where you kind of finished on card. Maybe just talk about where you're investing, what opportunities you're seeing? I know you announced a small acquisition of Kard with a K earlier in the quarter, just how that fits into the strategy. And I guess why we're on the subject of U.S. card, maybe talk about M&A more broadly, I have to ask.

Because we haven't been clear enough, I think, there. Of course. No, so let me start with our cards franchise. The first thing I would say maybe to baseline is our target that we provided at Investor Day for returns for our card business is low 20% in the for ROTCE as a through the cycle return photograph. And when you look at the second quarter, we were at 22%, and we expect to be broadly in line.

So it's good that the business is already operating at where we want it to be. And when you look at our strategy, in particular, we are very focused on driving growth in general purpose cards and versus private label cards. And the reason for that is the customers are taking us there, right? That's the preference that the customers show us with their wallet every day. That's also why you see if you look at our business mix from the end of last year to the middle of this year, we already shifted from 82% to 84%, the mix in favor of general purpose cards, and you're seeing that grow faster.

Now the strategy of leaning into that, I see in my evaluation, that's working, right? If I -- again, let me take to the side so that I don't take credit for the inorganic part of taking the portfolio of American Airlines from Barclays and no offense. Thank you. But if you take those numbers to the side, -- and you look at the 3 typical engines for the cards franchise where our customers spending with you, a customer giving you their new card and our customers borrowing from you, those 3 engines are growing at about 8%, 11% and 4%, respectively, the last quarter. So we're seeing good momentum.

So the investments that we have been making in the business and we'll continue to make, as we talked about at Investor Day, that has to do with digital marketing, with account acquisitions, expanding the partnership with American Airlines, driving our proprietary portfolio with product innovation, customer loyalty capabilities, our cost portfolio, all of those are playing through.

Even the Kard acquisition with the K, that's related to personalizing rewards and offers so that we can apply that into our proprietary portfolio as well as into our co-branded cards. So we think that as a key ingredient of driving our commerce ecosystem and the loyalty from clients into the cards.

Now to your question on the broader M&A, I think we've been super clear that we're sharply focused on execution and very focused on the organic opportunities that we have in front of us. So don't expect anything transformative. From time to time, you may see some of these small acquisitions that are add-ons in order to round up our offer and value proposition and capabilities, but nothing transformative. I think Jane has been super clear. Thank you.

Thank you. Maybe on services, we've seen pretty strong performance in the year. You talked about double-digit year-over-year growth. Maybe just talk about some of the drivers there and just expectations for growth going forward.

Yes. No, very pleased. I think Shahmir and the team are doing a terrific job. And I look at the -- I'm quoting the second quarter because it's the most recent, right? But the business for several quarters, not just in the second quarter, they have been performing very well. NII up 18%, NIR up 16% for the quarter. And I attach that to 2 or 3 key drivers.

The first one is that this is our moat, right? We have a global network in the rails of most of the global corporates around the world. We're highly embedded, and that's a critical capability that gives us the ability to drive these results. The second piece is the commercial intensity, how focused Shahmir and the team are on gaining new business and the mandates that we're winning. The win rate is up more than 30% year-on-year. We're seeing market share gains. So that commercial customer intensity is really key.

And the third piece is investing in that first moat and making sure that we're not asleep in terms of ensuring that we put the right investments behind it. So when you look at our technology platform, we invest about $2 billion every year in our platform. And just to make it more tangible, let me give you a couple of examples. And these investments, by the way, they run in parallel between investing in our core to protect our moat and our position and at the same time, offensively innovate, right, in terms of new capabilities so that when customers or the market is ready, we're the first port of call.

So in terms of core capabilities, as an example, we continue to invest in 24/7 U.S. dollar clearing. We just announced in the last couple of weeks, Custody Plus which is a capability to move a lot of the asset manager custody capabilities from the batch processing into near or real time for events and other pieces across 62 markets. Nobody has that across that many markets. So these are a couple of examples of investments.

Also deploying AI for CitiDirect Assist so that we can be more responsive to customers on a faster clip. So all of these are things that continue to propel and augment the core. And then in addition, you've probably seen us, I think this year, we've made a number of announcements and investments on our digital asset capabilities, whether it's Citi Token Services, which is now in 5 countries and a couple of currencies, and we're seeing good volume pickups year-on-year.

We announced a little bit earlier capabilities to -- for private companies to drive digital depository receipts. We've just tested as a pilot, the first U.S. bank that did a transaction with OCBC and Abu Dhabi Bank for the SWIFT blockchain ledger. So you're seeing us really lean into digital assets, too, so that when the market and when the customers are ready, also we're there to support them. So far, obviously, we are investing a lot in the core as well at the same time. Those things really anchor is the customer intensity, the investments we're making in the platform in order to make sure that there's perpetuity to our model.

Before we talk about the wealth business, and we've seen significant progress, returns now over 14% in the second quarter. Maybe just talk to some of the drivers of continued revenue growth and improved performance.

Yes. Maybe to recap for everyone's benefit, our near-term target of returns, the ROTCE for our wealth franchise is 15% to 20%. And it's one of our business where we know we need to show that return improvement. So Andy and the team very focused on that. Just to play back kind of the sequential journey for everyone, if you look at the returns in this business a year ago in 2025, 7.6% ROTCE against that goal of 15% to 20%.

The first quarter, 10.8%; the second quarter, 14.4%. So you're seeing sequentially that we're making that progress. And that's on the back of seeing double-digit revenue growth with a good degree of consistency through several quarters. And at the same time, a lot of expense rigor that Andy and the team are bringing.

Second quarter is a good example. That 14.4% return came on the back of 13% revenue growth, coupled with a 3% expense growth. So the more quarters that we can string together, the much easier you can see the path to getting within the 15% to 20% real soon. Now maybe to speak for a second about that revenue growth, and that really is anchored on 2 primary vectors that Andy is focused on.

The first one I mentioned a little bit earlier, which is really driving the net new investment asset momentum. That's growing at about 9%. The client investment assets, which are kind of the denominator, those are growing at 14%. So we're seeing a lot of focus from Andy very much weekly, and that's what anchors the NII growth. And then on the deposit side, maintaining the discipline, number one, in offensively trying to grow volumes in deposits, which we're seeing about 4% but also and very importantly, managing the mix and managing the pricing and doing that with a lot of discipline. And that's why you're seeing a lot of the uptick in the NII that we saw in the wealth business over the last few quarters.

And maybe turning to markets. That's been another area you talked about investing, particularly on the equity side. Maybe just talk about where you're investing and just the progress you've seen.

Yes. Obviously, in a constructive market, we're seeing very good performance, but the -- just to go back to what we talked about at Investor Day, 2 big vectors of Anchor our strategy in our markets business. The first one is around, number one, maintaining our leadership position in FICC and at the same time, scaling equities. And that's what we spoke about at Investor Day and Andy was very clear on how we are really investing on that business for growth because we're starting a little bit later.

And so making sure that we're driving that scale in the business. And that's why we're pleased with the momentum that we're seeing so far in the year and into the quarter as well. The second big vector of our strategy is continuing to leverage the diversification benefit that we get from the franchise that we have. And you actually saw proof of that in Q1 and in Q2, right, where you had strong equity performance, good spread performance in the second quarter, especially, not as great performance in rates in the first and second quarter.

And still, we were able to produce record performance in the business and record momentum. So it's good to see how that diversification allows us to not necessarily have to have every single engine performing at full speed in order to drive good performance. So that's the second vector.

And as part of that, we're also very focused on driving stable sources of revenues more and more as time goes by. So in the equity space, it's prime, in the spread space, what we're seeing with financing and what we're driving with financing and securitization. And the same thing in our leading FX and currency franchise as it relates to the corporate flows. So as you see those 3 engines come together, you're seeing more and more annuity-like behavior in some of our revenue profile.

Helpful. And then maybe shifting gears to capital. You're going to buy back more stock this year than last year. Can you maybe talk to kind of your framework for capital deployment, just expectations for share buyback going forward?

Yes. Our capital framework, just to play back for a minute, is priority #1, obviously, continuing to be the source of resilience that we have been for our clients and for the system over the last several years in terms of any disruption and dislocation that you can think of. That's our #1 priority.

And once you get past that, it's for us finding the constant balance between ensuring that we're supporting our clients and our business with accretive return opportunities and at the same time, returning capital to shareholders. And hopefully, if you look closely at our first and second quarter, you can see us managing that balance, right, where we were able to support record performance in markets, in banking, in services by deploying balance sheet for our customers in those 2 quarters.

And at the same time, we bought back about $10.3 billion across both quarters of our stock. So hopefully, you're seeing us manage that principle in real life. As it relates to the buybacks, we're pleased that we announced our $30 billion new program at Investor Day a couple of months ago. And also pleased that we closed the prior program of about $20 billion.

So that is good. To your point, we are expecting this year in 2026 to be ahead of what we did last year, which was about $13 billion. for all of last year. And maybe the last piece I'll mention is as it relates to our CET1 ratio, we broadly have been operating within the range of our targets. So we don't expect to make very sharp movements over the next couple of quarters. We expect to be more or less around where we are.

I guess on the capital front, just maybe give us a brief update on where you are with the Banamex and just remind us of the expected timing and impacts and how to just think about that.

Yes. So Banamex, we are -- I'm glad with the speed of execution that the team has shown us for -- just to recap for everyone, we have -- just in the last few weeks, we closed the last 1.4% of the second tranche of the sell-down that we had spoken about externally. That puts us today as owners of about 51% of Banamex and so 49% we've already dispositioned.

We've said before that for the remainder of this year, we're not going to have any more transactions because we want to make sure that we give our partner investors enough time to continue to drive value creation. When I look at the second quarter Banamex results and I strip out the FX impact, the revenues have been growing 19%.

So really good growth in revenues, really good momentum in deposits and loans. And so we think that time is worth it for us. We have also said that we expect early next year to trigger the deconsolidation. That is when we own a bit less than 50%. So that should happen early next year. And then depending on market conditions and timing and value, we will look for an IPO as the following step.

Now to recap for a second, upon the deconsolidation, and I know we've spoken about this before, and we'll provide more updates and details during earnings. When that happens, we expect to see a currency translation adjustment flow through the P&L as a loss of about $9 billion. And as we've also said before, that shouldn't have an impact neither on regulatory capital nor on TCE on a cumulative basis, given how things go.

But that's -- so we're ahead of our schedule. We're making sure that we have discipline in terms of value creation and value capture, and we feel good about what's going to happen early next year.

Maybe talk a little bit about your AI strategy and where you expect to see benefits going forward?

Yes. So of course, with such a disruptive technology, I think you would expect us, and we are very disciplined, very intentional, very strategic and also very prudent. So those 4 things are key. And so -- but let me spend a second on the 4 pillars of our AI strategy. The first is going after client growth and revenue growth and really driving that. The second piece is operating efficiency and being able to help on some of those structural efficiencies that I was talking about that will help us self-fund those investments through automation and AI.

That's the second pillar. The third pillar is defensive capabilities. So when you think of cyber, when you think of fraud threat vectors, when you think of risk management, being highly productive there. It's very clearly a very sharp focus that we have on that. And the fourth piece is our workforce. Making sure that we help our teams navigate the upgrade of knowledge that needs to happen and how do they leverage the tools so that we can hit both the benefit bottom-up of everybody's innovation coming to the fore.

And at the same time, we're able to capture the value from some of the top-down capabilities that we're driving from the top of the house, right, with full funding at full speed and through the model. So when I step back across each of those four pillars, we're starting to see really good benefits play through. So for example, on the client front, some of the client experience progress that we're seeing, whether it's in our cards, our wealth and retail capabilities or our services franchise with CitiDirect Assist where we're cutting down response times by more than 20%.

So we're seeing upside in terms of the client experience. And at the same time, you're seeing upside in terms of controls and in terms of efficiency. So you get a little bit of a triple win, right, in some of these early innings for many of the benefits. So that's the focus for us. The top-down focus married with the bottom-up innovation that we want to unleash as well.

Got it. And maybe give us an update on where you are with kind of the transformation program at this point.

So we are -- right now, we are at Citi's target state as it relates to our risk, our compliance and our control programs. And as we've said recently as well, we have a bit more work to do on our data program, especially as it relates to regulatory reporting. So that's the focus. Now of course, the consent order and the timing of that being lifted, that's completely at the discretion of our regulators and their review protocols as well.

But then the other thing that I usually talk about for clarity is as we complete those programs, we take out the temporary costs. So just to recap for everyone, we talked last year about how our transformation costs in totality were about $3.3 billion. Now about half of those are temporary in nature. The other half are more structural. For the temporary ones, those are the ones that as we complete programs, we don't wait, right, until the very end.

As we reach program completion, we start taking those costs out. So you don't expect really any cliff effect, right, of those expenses coming off because we have already started to do it along the way as we've completed some of our programs in risk, in compliance and controls and so on. Now the other half of them, the structural ones, they become part of our functional fabric. And as we go forward, pursuing automation, AI initiatives across the whole set of those costs, those are going to be obviously looked after as well.

Got it. You mentioned earlier that you're going to be above the 10% to 11% ROTCE target for this year. On the July call, you're very reluctant to make that statement. I guess, twofold. Why -- what makes you more comfortable today with that? -- despite the pull forward of investments? And then given the fact that you pulled forward those investments, how does that impact the return trajectory going forward?

Yes. So thank you for the question. And yes, the short answer is a couple of months have gone by, and now we can see the third quarter momentum. So -- which is always what we said, by the way, we didn't -- we are doing exactly what we said we were going to do. We were -- we wanted to see what the next 6 months look like and have a bit more proximity to that and keep that option to do some of the pull forward. So obviously, now that we are sitting here and we have seen really good momentum in the third quarter, we want to exercise that option.

Now maybe to step back on the returns picture, we talked about the 10% to 11% for this year and where we expect to land, which is a bit north of the 11%. When we look at the near-term targets for us, it's 11% to 13%. Near term for us is '27 and '28. Reminder, in '28, we expect to be on the top half of that range of 11% to 13% -- and thereafter, in the medium term, the 14% to 15% is our range.

Now when you look at the drivers that will enable that journey from where we are to where we want to go, 3 things are the key drivers there. The first one is client-driven momentum, right? And that is us enabling deploying the $5 billion of incremental investments in order to continue the momentum that I was just talking about going business by business and make that stick and make that sustainable.

So that's kind of the primary one of the 3. The second vector is not dropping the focus on structural efficiencies. And so we -- for us and for me, financial discipline is super important. And so we spoke about at Investor Day how those investments on the first pillar are going to be self-funded via the second pillar, and that comes from 3 sources.

The first one is that half of the transformation cost that I spoke about a minute ago. So those coming down. The second one is stranded costs. Stranded costs a year ago were $1.3 billion. If you look at our last quarter, those were about $200 million a quarter. So you can already see them in real life coming down. The third one are structural efficiencies that we expect to get from automation, digitization and AI across our functional expenses and our operating expenses.

Now because that sounds generic enough, I want to give you the comfort that our execution discipline is very sharp on this third pillar as well. This is something that a couple of our executive team leaders, our COO, Anand and Tim Ryan, our Head of Technology, they meet every single week. And we look at each one of the 100-plus processes that we're mapping end-to-end.

So these are processes that have been prioritized. They've been funded on their technology. So it's not just some PowerPoint thing that we are aspiring to. It really is something that we have rigor behind in terms of execution so that we can be very clear about that ability to self-fund the investments.

And the third piece is capital optimization. As I think most of you know, we have a portion of disallowed DTA, which at the end of last year was about 13.9%. This is an area that I've been very clear, is an area that we need to show you that we can make the progress. The first bite of that should come this year so that we don't have you waiting for very long. And that's about $800 million of burning down of disallowed DTA. We are on track for that.

A lot of that comes primarily from being able to drive U.S. profitability. So it's a little bit of a positive double whammy of our strategy working. As we become more profitable, as we drive more returns across the whole company, a good portion of that happens in the U.S. as well, and you get the additional benefit of not only the better returns, but in addition, the fact that you're burning down DTA. So we expect to make good progress in the near term, and that is the third leg that will anchor our progress towards that sequential improvement.

I think it's important maybe to confirm this, right, the 14% to 15% you talked about, that's on the current capital regime. As we think out to the potential new capital regime, it's potentially on a lower CET1.

Yes. Thank you for that clarification. Exactly right. So as we laid out the targets for the near term and the medium term, both the 11%, 13% and the 14% to 15% thereafter, they're both based on current capital rules as they are. I have mentioned in the past externally as well that obviously, we're expecting what the new rules will finally look like.

But our expectation with the ones that have been published so far is a moderate tailwind in terms of the RWAs and the G-SIB. And then we expect also hopefully some benefit from the SCB piece as well, where we have been showing progress, but a lot of that progress has been on the back of our strategy working. And we continue to expect to see that, right?

We've been able to reduce our SCB for the last 3 years in a row. This current year, even though it doesn't count, we also see another 30 basis points improvement. But that to me is a good signal for me of whether our strategy is working because we're becoming more resilient given the fact that we're opening the aperture on our earnings power.

And I guess as we come to a close here, just maybe what are the key points you would like investors to take away from the session today? And what do you think is still underappreciated about Citi?

Well, first, mission one. Mission one for us is driving sustainable, consistent return improvement on a long-term basis. We are not after shortcuts. Jane and I have been very clear. We're not after being a one-hit wonder. We really want that sustainability that comes from doing things right and thinking of the long term.

When you look at the performance that we're having and the momentum that we have with our clients, we're very clear eyed about where we are. We know we made progress. We know we have good momentum, and we're not satisfied. We're not done. There's no celebrations at 388 Greenwich because we know we have more work to do, and we know we have this potential to unlock and really close the gap to peers in terms of returns.

So what I think you can all expect from us is you can expect us to be very prudent as it relates to risk, capital, liquidity management. And at the same time, you can expect us to have a lot of execution urgency and execution discipline so that we can hold ourselves accountable to do exactly what we said we're going to do. Thank you.

Great. On that note, please join me in thanking Gonzalo for his time today. Thank you.

For our last presentation today, very pleased to have Citigroup. As a reminder, on the table to my left in the back are our posters and marketing decks that we've been advertising all week. So feel free to grab hard copies on your way out. Wrapping up today's session is very pleased to have Citigroup -- from the company, Gonzalo Luchetti, Chief Financial Officer for the past 6 months or so. Prior to that, he was Head of U.S. Personal Banking. Welcome.

Thank you for having me. Thank you, Jason.

Maybe the best place to start is kind of big picture, start on the corporate side of the house, but we've seen a constructive backdrop of corporate activity for much of the year. Just maybe update us in terms of what you're currently hearing in terms of client sentiment and the like.

Yes. Thanks. So we continue to see strong financing activity. Capital markets are broadly open across both equities and bonds. There's a bit of a bifurcation with certain industries like technology, AI, of course, shipping also on the back of some of the supply shortages and energy where you're seeing a fair bit of capital-intensive needs and projects that are coming up versus some other pockets like auto or consumer where you see margin pressure.

Of course, we're watching out for geopolitics and what role that can play or AI as well. But it's also true, and we have to have said the global economy and the U.S. economy, they both have navigated quite well so far in terms of adapting to some of the market dislocations to date.

I guess maybe on the consumer side of the house, how would you kind of gauge the health of the U.S. consumer at this point? And just what kind of activity levels are you seeing from that perspective?

Yes. Put simply, resilience. Consumers continue to spend, consumers continue to pay their bills on time. That's the simplest version. So if I talk about spend for a second, we are seeing around 6% year-on-year spend momentum. That's more or less in sync with what we saw in prior quarters that I'm excluding from here the impact of our American Airlines Barclays portfolio purchase.

And you're seeing in that spend good trends, not only obviously picked up from the oil inflation pickup and gas prices. But even you see -- you look at travel, you look at discretionary, it's relatively broad-based. And so we continue to see that constructively. The second piece on credit is stable. Delinquencies, losses, leading indicators, they're down year-on-year.

So that continues to be to be stable. Obviously, as a reminder, 85% plus of our portfolio is prime and above, right? So you'll decide how representative we are of the overall economy given our target market. But overall, we're seeing good stability in terms of credit, good performance in terms of the spend. Of course, we're watching out for the relationship between inflation and wages and whether there's any gaps there when you subclusterize it. We're looking for rates. We're looking out for the labor market, which appears to be in equilibrium so far.

Great. I want to dive into some of the bigger drivers of the company. But before we do that, maybe we could just talk in terms of what you're seeing kind of quarter-to-date in terms of investment banking fees, market activity. Just anything else you want to call out as we kind of come towards the end of the third quarter?

Yes. So maybe before I go into each of the -- those couple of components, maybe let me paint the broader picture for a second. I think we're -- I'm very pleased with how our strategy is working in terms of the execution discipline and the results that we're seeing. And when I put together the performance year-to-date, which has been pretty strong in the first couple of quarters as well as the good momentum that we're seeing in the quarter now, I'm confident that we're likely going to end up for the full year on the -- a little bit better than the top end of our range for our returns.

So we had talked about how our guidance for the year was 10% to 11% of ROTCE. And at this point, I think it's likely that we're going to be a bit above our 11%, so the top end of that range. Now when I look at Markets and Banking, both of them, very strong performance year-to-date. We continue to see good momentum overall.

So starting with markets, I think consensus has it broadly right. We're seeing mid-single-digit year-on-year growth for our markets business, continued good momentum in equities. That's one of the key areas we have been investing in. And so we're seeing good progress in prime. We're seeing also in derivatives, good momentum there. And then on FICC, our spread business with financing and securitization, which we focus on a lot because it drives the stable sources of revenues doing very well in the same way that we're seeing good progress and momentum in our leading FX and currency franchise as well.

So both of those things contributing to that kind of mid-single digits picture for markets. And then for Investment Banking, we expect to see in the quarter performance around low single-digit revenue growth year-on-year with a bit of upside depending on the last few deals between now and the end of the quarter. True for both markets and banking. September is a key month given how seasonally distributed usually this quarter is, right, with the holiday season in July and August. So these few weeks are very meaningful. But overall, that low single digits with some upside is probably what we're looking at. ECM continues to be strong -- sorry.

Up low single digits.

Up low single digits. Yes. Thank you for clarifying the signs. It is very important to know which signs you're pointing towards. And...

ECM, you were saying.

Yes, ECM continues to be quite strong, the level of activity there. DCM is healthy, but it's more moderated versus what we saw in the first half. M&A continues to be active, led primarily by the big corporates there, of course, and with the sponsors a bit more muted. That's kind of what we're seeing there.

That's good. Let's unpack some of that. We think back to Investor Day, you talked about $5 billion of business investments that you plan to make. During the second quarter earnings call in July, you talked about you wanting to pull forward some of those investments given this constructive backdrop we just talked about.

Can you just give us kind of more detail in terms of where those opportunities for investment are? And just are there other further efficiencies we can see? And then in the context of the guidance, just are you still on track to deliver that efficiency ratio around 60%...

Yes. Thank you. So maybe a couple of thoughts. The first one is, to be very clear, we haven't moved an inch on any of our financial commitments for -- during Investor Day, whether it's returns near term or medium term or as we just mentioned, the level of investment that we intend to support the business with, which is the $5 billion over 3 years in incremental investments. That hasn't changed. It also hasn't changed the fact that we're going to self-fund those investments from structural efficiencies, coupled with some of the temporary transformation costs coming down as well as some of the stranded costs from our dispositions coming down as well.

So maybe going back to our second quarter remarks, I think what we were looking for is if we saw continued good momentum for the rest of the year, we wanted to take advantage of the option to pull forward some of those investments still within that same box of the $5 billion over 3 years with the objective of getting to our return objectives with certainty and faster, hopefully, over time.

And that's exactly what we're going to do. So now that we are in the quarter and now that we're seeing really good momentum in the business, we're looking into accelerating about $500 million for the rest of the year, a combination of severance and some of it weighted towards severance and also some other investments to support our franchises, for example, marketing and our credit card acquisitions or marketing dollars for our wealth and retail franchise and the like.

So that's what we're looking at. And then back to your question around operating efficiency, as a reminder, what we're trying to achieve this year and our original guidance, which is around 60% is basically to have a three-peat, right? For 3 years in a row, if we achieve it this year, it will be -- in each year, we are improving by about 300 basis points of operating efficiency or a bit more. So this year, it's 300 basis points would be the improvement.

At this point, including this pull forward, we're expecting to be a bit better than the 60%. So that's what we're looking at for the full year.

Got it. Maybe go to NII ex Markets. There, you guided to 5% to 6% growth for the full year versus last year. Just maybe help us think about the puts and takes of that growth, particularly around your expectations for loan and deposit growth given the strong performance in the first half of the year? And maybe also discuss just the impact of rates with the Fed potentially hiking Wednesday and obviously, I think rates around the world having an upward bias.

Yes. No, very good question. I think A couple of thoughts there. Let me start maybe at the top with what's the main driver for us. The main driver for us for that NII ex Markets growth, which was about 6% in the second quarter is primarily client-driven volumes. So we really need to have our strategy working in order for us to deliver what we said we're going to do. And that's coming on the back of our commercial intensity and also some of the investments from the past starting to pay off.

So we're confident in what we're seeing there. Maybe to piece out and to parse it out a little bit in terms of the -- of that volume, second quarter, as an example, we delivered 12% growth in deposits, 6% growth in loans, ex markets, all of this is ex markets. So that was in the second quarter. That 12% in deposits was a combination of 19% in services, and about 4% in our wealth business.

Now we have talked about in the past, especially at Investor Day, we said that, that 19% will likely normalize over time, right? That is not something that is long-term sustainable. But still, we feel very good about the momentum that we're seeing in our services business, and we're very focused on driving operating deposits in that franchise and focus on the quality.

And then if I look at the loan side, about 6%, that's a result of about 10% loan growth in services and 5% loan growth in each of cards and wealth and banking, they were all around that kind of 5% range. When I look at the client momentum that we're seeing across each of those 4 businesses, very pleased with what we're seeing, and we have a good level of confidence.

Just to not -- even if the primary driver is volume, let me not be muted about pricing and spreads. And what we're seeing there generally is, first, we've been very disciplined on our pricing strategy and the betas continue to behave in the level that we're expecting them to. We have been very thoughtful about quality, too, and that's on both sides of the balance sheet.

So if you think about deposits and especially the biggest engine in this year has been services, but this is true also in our wealth business, a lot of discipline on the quality and making sure that we're attracting operating deposits, and we're not chasing volume that is low value. The same is true on the asset side. When we are issuing loans and when we deploy the balance sheet, we want to make sure that it's recognizing the full breadth of the relationship and that we have a good degree of certainty. So that quality, that discipline to us is what anchors a lot of what we're seeing in terms of the momentum.

So when you bring it all together, that picture of volume, the momentum that we're seeing with clients and also assuming that we continue to be very disciplined on pricing management and mix management, what we are expecting now is to be able to be within the 5% to 6%. We're probably expecting to be on the top end of that range or a bit better than the 6%. That's what we're looking at now for the full year.

Okay. Maybe continuing down the income statement. Fee income ex markets, you talked about growth. Just maybe a little more granular and just walk us through the drivers you see across the businesses for the year.

Yes. So NIR ex Markets or fee income, key focus for us, a key part of our strategy, and I'm pleased to see it working. So the second quarter, we had about 18% year-on-year growth. A lot of it was supported with a great performance in investment banking on the back of a constructive wallet as well as the investments that we've been making in talent with Vis and the team driving that. So we're pleased to see that momentum. I just spoke a minute ago about what we're seeing for the third quarter in terms of that positive low single-digit trajectory with probably a bit of upside depending on what happens between now and September 30.

And then when you look at the rest of the other businesses, you look at services, that was up 16% year-on-year. Look at the drivers there, assets under custody administration was up 22%. Now yes, there's a portion of beta there, but there's a lot of alpha because when I look at that business, I'm seeing a lot of good client momentum, both in deepening relationships as well as gaining new mandates at a faster clip than we were a year ago.

Also, cross-border volumes up 13%. So I think some of the investments we've been making in the platform and also how Shahmir and the team are driving that dialogue with clients to me is playing through and has sustainability. Another piece of it is also wealth. Now wealth in the second quarter was 4% year-on-year. Now we had some gains on sale a year ago from some strategic decisions.

So if you actually look at the biggest driver under the 4, there was a 20% improvement in investment revenue fees. And so -- and that is really driven by the focus that Andy and the team have very sharply on net new investment assets. So growing that is really what underpins the momentum in the business there. That grew about 9% organically.

Our target is to be in the high single digits. So we're well on track in terms of that performance and what we're seeing there, and we think the team is very focused on that. And the last piece is cards. Cards NIR is -- we said in the second quarter that it will be consistently around the similar range for the third and the fourth quarter because a lot of the investments that we're making in cards are contra revenue as well as the relationship with the partners, some of the profit shares fall through that as well. So as you're seeing us grow, you see that -- some of that coming through in NIR.

All right. Maybe we could double-click into some of those areas. Maybe we'll just start with where you kind of finished on card. Maybe just talk about where you're investing, what opportunities you're seeing? I know you announced a small acquisition of Kard with a K earlier in the quarter, just how that fits into the strategy. And I guess why we're on the subject of U.S. card, maybe talk about M&A more broadly, I have to ask.

Because we haven't been clear enough, I think, there. Of course. No, so let me start with our cards franchise. The first thing I would say maybe to baseline is our target that we provided at Investor Day for returns for our card business is low 20% in the for ROTCE as a through the cycle return photograph. And when you look at the second quarter, we were at 22%, and we expect to be broadly in line.

So it's good that the business is already operating at where we want it to be. And when you look at our strategy, in particular, we are very focused on driving growth in general purpose cards and versus private label cards. And the reason for that is the customers are taking us there, right? That's the preference that the customers show us with their wallet every day. That's also why you see if you look at our business mix from the end of last year to the middle of this year, we already shifted from 82% to 84%, the mix in favor of general purpose cards, and you're seeing that grow faster.

Now the strategy of leaning into that, I see in my evaluation, that's working, right? If I -- again, let me take to the side so that I don't take credit for the inorganic part of taking the portfolio of American Airlines from Barclays and no offense. Thank you. But if you take those numbers to the side, -- and you look at the 3 typical engines for the cards franchise where our customers spending with you, a customer giving you their new card and our customers borrowing from you, those 3 engines are growing at about 8%, 11% and 4%, respectively, the last quarter. So we're seeing good momentum.

So the investments that we have been making in the business and we'll continue to make, as we talked about at Investor Day, that has to do with digital marketing, with account acquisitions, expanding the partnership with American Airlines, driving our proprietary portfolio with product innovation, customer loyalty capabilities, our cost portfolio, all of those are playing through.

Even the Kard acquisition with the K, that's related to personalizing rewards and offers so that we can apply that into our proprietary portfolio as well as into our co-branded cards. So we think that as a key ingredient of driving our commerce ecosystem and the loyalty from clients into the cards.

Now to your question on the broader M&A, I think we've been super clear that we're sharply focused on execution and very focused on the organic opportunities that we have in front of us. So don't expect anything transformative. From time to time, you may see some of these small acquisitions that are add-ons in order to round up our offer and value proposition and capabilities, but nothing transformative. I think Jane has been super clear. Thank you.

Thank you. Maybe on services, we've seen pretty strong performance in the year. You talked about double-digit year-over-year growth. Maybe just talk about some of the drivers there and just expectations for growth going forward.

Yes. No, very pleased. I think Shahmir and the team are doing a terrific job. And I look at the -- I'm quoting the second quarter because it's the most recent, right? But the business for several quarters, not just in the second quarter, they have been performing very well. NII up 18%, NIR up 16% for the quarter. And I attach that to 2 or 3 key drivers.

The first one is that this is our moat, right? We have a global network in the rails of most of the global corporates around the world. We're highly embedded, and that's a critical capability that gives us the ability to drive these results. The second piece is the commercial intensity, how focused Shahmir and the team are on gaining new business and the mandates that we're winning. The win rate is up more than 30% year-on-year. We're seeing market share gains. So that commercial customer intensity is really key.

And the third piece is investing in that first moat and making sure that we're not asleep in terms of ensuring that we put the right investments behind it. So when you look at our technology platform, we invest about $2 billion every year in our platform. And just to make it more tangible, let me give you a couple of examples. And these investments, by the way, they run in parallel between investing in our core to protect our moat and our position and at the same time, offensively innovate, right, in terms of new capabilities so that when customers or the market is ready, we're the first port of call.

So in terms of core capabilities, as an example, we continue to invest in 24/7 U.S. dollar clearing. We just announced in the last couple of weeks, Custody Plus which is a capability to move a lot of the asset manager custody capabilities from the batch processing into near or real time for events and other pieces across 62 markets. Nobody has that across that many markets. So these are a couple of examples of investments.

Also deploying AI for CitiDirect Assist so that we can be more responsive to customers on a faster clip. So all of these are things that continue to propel and augment the core. And then in addition, you've probably seen us, I think this year, we've made a number of announcements and investments on our digital asset capabilities, whether it's Citi Token Services, which is now in 5 countries and a couple of currencies, and we're seeing good volume pickups year-on-year.

We announced a little bit earlier capabilities to -- for private companies to drive digital depository receipts. We've just tested as a pilot, the first U.S. bank that did a transaction with OCBC and Abu Dhabi Bank for the SWIFT blockchain ledger. So you're seeing us really lean into digital assets, too, so that when the market and when the customers are ready, also we're there to support them. So far, obviously, we are investing a lot in the core as well at the same time. Those things really anchor is the customer intensity, the investments we're making in the platform in order to make sure that there's perpetuity to our model.

Before we talk about the wealth business, and we've seen significant progress, returns now over 14% in the second quarter. Maybe just talk to some of the drivers of continued revenue growth and improved performance.

Yes. Maybe to recap for everyone's benefit, our near-term target of returns, the ROTCE for our wealth franchise is 15% to 20%. And it's one of our business where we know we need to show that return improvement. So Andy and the team very focused on that. Just to play back kind of the sequential journey for everyone, if you look at the returns in this business a year ago in 2025, 7.6% ROTCE against that goal of 15% to 20%.

The first quarter, 10.8%; the second quarter, 14.4%. So you're seeing sequentially that we're making that progress. And that's on the back of seeing double-digit revenue growth with a good degree of consistency through several quarters. And at the same time, a lot of expense rigor that Andy and the team are bringing.

Second quarter is a good example. That 14.4% return came on the back of 13% revenue growth, coupled with a 3% expense growth. So the more quarters that we can string together, the much easier you can see the path to getting within the 15% to 20% real soon. Now maybe to speak for a second about that revenue growth, and that really is anchored on 2 primary vectors that Andy is focused on.

The first one I mentioned a little bit earlier, which is really driving the net new investment asset momentum. That's growing at about 9%. The client investment assets, which are kind of the denominator, those are growing at 14%. So we're seeing a lot of focus from Andy very much weekly, and that's what anchors the NII growth. And then on the deposit side, maintaining the discipline, number one, in offensively trying to grow volumes in deposits, which we're seeing about 4% but also and very importantly, managing the mix and managing the pricing and doing that with a lot of discipline. And that's why you're seeing a lot of the uptick in the NII that we saw in the wealth business over the last few quarters.

And maybe turning to markets. That's been another area you talked about investing, particularly on the equity side. Maybe just talk about where you're investing and just the progress you've seen.

Yes. Obviously, in a constructive market, we're seeing very good performance, but the -- just to go back to what we talked about at Investor Day, 2 big vectors of Anchor our strategy in our markets business. The first one is around, number one, maintaining our leadership position in FICC and at the same time, scaling equities. And that's what we spoke about at Investor Day and Andy was very clear on how we are really investing on that business for growth because we're starting a little bit later.

And so making sure that we're driving that scale in the business. And that's why we're pleased with the momentum that we're seeing so far in the year and into the quarter as well. The second big vector of our strategy is continuing to leverage the diversification benefit that we get from the franchise that we have. And you actually saw proof of that in Q1 and in Q2, right, where you had strong equity performance, good spread performance in the second quarter, especially, not as great performance in rates in the first and second quarter.

And still, we were able to produce record performance in the business and record momentum. So it's good to see how that diversification allows us to not necessarily have to have every single engine performing at full speed in order to drive good performance. So that's the second vector.

And as part of that, we're also very focused on driving stable sources of revenues more and more as time goes by. So in the equity space, it's prime, in the spread space, what we're seeing with financing and what we're driving with financing and securitization. And the same thing in our leading FX and currency franchise as it relates to the corporate flows. So as you see those 3 engines come together, you're seeing more and more annuity-like behavior in some of our revenue profile.

Helpful. And then maybe shifting gears to capital. You're going to buy back more stock this year than last year. Can you maybe talk to kind of your framework for capital deployment, just expectations for share buyback going forward?

Yes. Our capital framework, just to play back for a minute, is priority #1, obviously, continuing to be the source of resilience that we have been for our clients and for the system over the last several years in terms of any disruption and dislocation that you can think of. That's our #1 priority.

And once you get past that, it's for us finding the constant balance between ensuring that we're supporting our clients and our business with accretive return opportunities and at the same time, returning capital to shareholders. And hopefully, if you look closely at our first and second quarter, you can see us managing that balance, right, where we were able to support record performance in markets, in banking, in services by deploying balance sheet for our customers in those 2 quarters.

And at the same time, we bought back about $10.3 billion across both quarters of our stock. So hopefully, you're seeing us manage that principle in real life. As it relates to the buybacks, we're pleased that we announced our $30 billion new program at Investor Day a couple of months ago. And also pleased that we closed the prior program of about $20 billion.

So that is good. To your point, we are expecting this year in 2026 to be ahead of what we did last year, which was about $13 billion. for all of last year. And maybe the last piece I'll mention is as it relates to our CET1 ratio, we broadly have been operating within the range of our targets. So we don't expect to make very sharp movements over the next couple of quarters. We expect to be more or less around where we are.

I guess on the capital front, just maybe give us a brief update on where you are with the Banamex and just remind us of the expected timing and impacts and how to just think about that.

Yes. So Banamex, we are -- I'm glad with the speed of execution that the team has shown us for -- just to recap for everyone, we have -- just in the last few weeks, we closed the last 1.4% of the second tranche of the sell-down that we had spoken about externally. That puts us today as owners of about 51% of Banamex and so 49% we've already dispositioned.

We've said before that for the remainder of this year, we're not going to have any more transactions because we want to make sure that we give our partner investors enough time to continue to drive value creation. When I look at the second quarter Banamex results and I strip out the FX impact, the revenues have been growing 19%.

So really good growth in revenues, really good momentum in deposits and loans. And so we think that time is worth it for us. We have also said that we expect early next year to trigger the deconsolidation. That is when we own a bit less than 50%. So that should happen early next year. And then depending on market conditions and timing and value, we will look for an IPO as the following step.

Now to recap for a second, upon the deconsolidation, and I know we've spoken about this before, and we'll provide more updates and details during earnings. When that happens, we expect to see a currency translation adjustment flow through the P&L as a loss of about $9 billion. And as we've also said before, that shouldn't have an impact neither on regulatory capital nor on TCE on a cumulative basis, given how things go.

But that's -- so we're ahead of our schedule. We're making sure that we have discipline in terms of value creation and value capture, and we feel good about what's going to happen early next year.

Maybe talk a little bit about your AI strategy and where you expect to see benefits going forward?

Yes. So of course, with such a disruptive technology, I think you would expect us, and we are very disciplined, very intentional, very strategic and also very prudent. So those 4 things are key. And so -- but let me spend a second on the 4 pillars of our AI strategy. The first is going after client growth and revenue growth and really driving that. The second piece is operating efficiency and being able to help on some of those structural efficiencies that I was talking about that will help us self-fund those investments through automation and AI.

That's the second pillar. The third pillar is defensive capabilities. So when you think of cyber, when you think of fraud threat vectors, when you think of risk management, being highly productive there. It's very clearly a very sharp focus that we have on that. And the fourth piece is our workforce. Making sure that we help our teams navigate the upgrade of knowledge that needs to happen and how do they leverage the tools so that we can hit both the benefit bottom-up of everybody's innovation coming to the fore.

And at the same time, we're able to capture the value from some of the top-down capabilities that we're driving from the top of the house, right, with full funding at full speed and through the model. So when I step back across each of those four pillars, we're starting to see really good benefits play through. So for example, on the client front, some of the client experience progress that we're seeing, whether it's in our cards, our wealth and retail capabilities or our services franchise with CitiDirect Assist where we're cutting down response times by more than 20%.

So we're seeing upside in terms of the client experience. And at the same time, you're seeing upside in terms of controls and in terms of efficiency. So you get a little bit of a triple win, right, in some of these early innings for many of the benefits. So that's the focus for us. The top-down focus married with the bottom-up innovation that we want to unleash as well.

Got it. And maybe give us an update on where you are with kind of the transformation program at this point.

So we are -- right now, we are at Citi's target state as it relates to our risk, our compliance and our control programs. And as we've said recently as well, we have a bit more work to do on our data program, especially as it relates to regulatory reporting. So that's the focus. Now of course, the consent order and the timing of that being lifted, that's completely at the discretion of our regulators and their review protocols as well.

But then the other thing that I usually talk about for clarity is as we complete those programs, we take out the temporary costs. So just to recap for everyone, we talked last year about how our transformation costs in totality were about $3.3 billion. Now about half of those are temporary in nature. The other half are more structural. For the temporary ones, those are the ones that as we complete programs, we don't wait, right, until the very end.

As we reach program completion, we start taking those costs out. So you don't expect really any cliff effect, right, of those expenses coming off because we have already started to do it along the way as we've completed some of our programs in risk, in compliance and controls and so on. Now the other half of them, the structural ones, they become part of our functional fabric. And as we go forward, pursuing automation, AI initiatives across the whole set of those costs, those are going to be obviously looked after as well.

Got it. You mentioned earlier that you're going to be above the 10% to 11% ROTCE target for this year. On the July call, you're very reluctant to make that statement. I guess, twofold. Why -- what makes you more comfortable today with that? -- despite the pull forward of investments? And then given the fact that you pulled forward those investments, how does that impact the return trajectory going forward?

Yes. So thank you for the question. And yes, the short answer is a couple of months have gone by, and now we can see the third quarter momentum. So -- which is always what we said, by the way, we didn't -- we are doing exactly what we said we were going to do. We were -- we wanted to see what the next 6 months look like and have a bit more proximity to that and keep that option to do some of the pull forward. So obviously, now that we are sitting here and we have seen really good momentum in the third quarter, we want to exercise that option.

Now maybe to step back on the returns picture, we talked about the 10% to 11% for this year and where we expect to land, which is a bit north of the 11%. When we look at the near-term targets for us, it's 11% to 13%. Near term for us is '27 and '28. Reminder, in '28, we expect to be on the top half of that range of 11% to 13% -- and thereafter, in the medium term, the 14% to 15% is our range.

Now when you look at the drivers that will enable that journey from where we are to where we want to go, 3 things are the key drivers there. The first one is client-driven momentum, right? And that is us enabling deploying the $5 billion of incremental investments in order to continue the momentum that I was just talking about going business by business and make that stick and make that sustainable.

So that's kind of the primary one of the 3. The second vector is not dropping the focus on structural efficiencies. And so we -- for us and for me, financial discipline is super important. And so we spoke about at Investor Day how those investments on the first pillar are going to be self-funded via the second pillar, and that comes from 3 sources.

The first one is that half of the transformation cost that I spoke about a minute ago. So those coming down. The second one is stranded costs. Stranded costs a year ago were $1.3 billion. If you look at our last quarter, those were about $200 million a quarter. So you can already see them in real life coming down. The third one are structural efficiencies that we expect to get from automation, digitization and AI across our functional expenses and our operating expenses.

Now because that sounds generic enough, I want to give you the comfort that our execution discipline is very sharp on this third pillar as well. This is something that a couple of our executive team leaders, our COO, Anand and Tim Ryan, our Head of Technology, they meet every single week. And we look at each one of the 100-plus processes that we're mapping end-to-end.

So these are processes that have been prioritized. They've been funded on their technology. So it's not just some PowerPoint thing that we are aspiring to. It really is something that we have rigor behind in terms of execution so that we can be very clear about that ability to self-fund the investments.

And the third piece is capital optimization. As I think most of you know, we have a portion of disallowed DTA, which at the end of last year was about 13.9%. This is an area that I've been very clear, is an area that we need to show you that we can make the progress. The first bite of that should come this year so that we don't have you waiting for very long. And that's about $800 million of burning down of disallowed DTA. We are on track for that.

A lot of that comes primarily from being able to drive U.S. profitability. So it's a little bit of a positive double whammy of our strategy working. As we become more profitable, as we drive more returns across the whole company, a good portion of that happens in the U.S. as well, and you get the additional benefit of not only the better returns, but in addition, the fact that you're burning down DTA. So we expect to make good progress in the near term, and that is the third leg that will anchor our progress towards that sequential improvement.

I think it's important maybe to confirm this, right, the 14% to 15% you talked about, that's on the current capital regime. As we think out to the potential new capital regime, it's potentially on a lower CET1.

Yes. Thank you for that clarification. Exactly right. So as we laid out the targets for the near term and the medium term, both the 11%, 13% and the 14% to 15% thereafter, they're both based on current capital rules as they are. I have mentioned in the past externally as well that obviously, we're expecting what the new rules will finally look like.

But our expectation with the ones that have been published so far is a moderate tailwind in terms of the RWAs and the G-SIB. And then we expect also hopefully some benefit from the SCB piece as well, where we have been showing progress, but a lot of that progress has been on the back of our strategy working. And we continue to expect to see that, right?

We've been able to reduce our SCB for the last 3 years in a row. This current year, even though it doesn't count, we also see another 30 basis points improvement. But that to me is a good signal for me of whether our strategy is working because we're becoming more resilient given the fact that we're opening the aperture on our earnings power.

And I guess as we come to a close here, just maybe what are the key points you would like investors to take away from the session today? And what do you think is still underappreciated about Citi?

Well, first, mission one. Mission one for us is driving sustainable, consistent return improvement on a long-term basis. We are not after shortcuts. Jane and I have been very clear. We're not after being a one-hit wonder. We really want that sustainability that comes from doing things right and thinking of the long term.

When you look at the performance that we're having and the momentum that we have with our clients, we're very clear eyed about where we are. We know we made progress. We know we have good momentum, and we're not satisfied. We're not done. There's no celebrations at 388 Greenwich because we know we have more work to do, and we know we have this potential to unlock and really close the gap to peers in terms of returns.

So what I think you can all expect from us is you can expect us to be very prudent as it relates to risk, capital, liquidity management. And at the same time, you can expect us to have a lot of execution urgency and execution discipline so that we can hold ourselves accountable to do exactly what we said we're going to do. Thank you.

Great. On that note, please join me in thanking Gonzalo for his time today. Thank you.

Hello, and welcome to Citi's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Today's call will be hosted by Jenn Landis, Head of Citi Investor Relations.

[Operator Instructions]

Also as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. Ms. Landis, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you all for joining our second quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm joined today by our Chair and Chief Executive Officer; Jane Fraser and our Chief Financial Officer, Gonzalo Luchetti. I'd like to remind you that today's presentation, which is available for download on our website, citigroup.com, may contain forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of factors, including those described in our earnings materials as well as in our SEC filings. And with that, I'll turn it over to Jane.

Thank you, Jenn, and good morning to everyone. Our momentum continued and the second quarter capped a very good first half of the year. This morning, we reported net income of $5.8 billion for the second quarter with an EPS of $3.15 and an RoTCE of 13%. This was Citi's best quarterly revenue in a decade, which we delivered with over 9% positive operating leverage. Once again, we saw double-digit revenue growth for the firm and in 4 of our 5 businesses. We improved our RoTCE for the firm by 430 basis points and had significant improvement in the returns of every single business.

The combination of our investments, disciplined execution and focus on clients is delivering improved returns and more durable results. Let me take you through our 5 businesses. Services delivered its highest ever quarterly revenue and a return of over 30%. Clients continue to lean on our global network more and more. We saw a 13% increase in cross-border transactions and a 19% increase in deposits. Our assets under custody and administration were up over 20% as we onboarded funds and deepened existing relationships. This is the power of our network. And it's a franchise that is very hard to replicate.

Markets revenues were up 17% and crossed $7 billion again, as sentiment stay positive throughout the quarter. Equities was up over 40%, with prime balances up nearly 60%. Underneath fixed 7% growth, FX and spread products continued to shine and yet another example of our global network doing exactly what it is built to do for clients. This offset rates lower performance. Banking revenues climbed 34%, led by a sharp increase in financing activity amidst an overall strong wallet. Investment Banking was up 44% as we gained share in equity capital markets.

We played a role in the majority of the top equity and debt issuances in the quarter, including lead roles on the high-profile IPOs, such as SpaceX and Cerebras. As we enter the second half, the pipeline looks healthy, and we are continuing to invest in talent to fill the gaps in our coverage to gain share, including in M&A. Wealth revenues increased for the ninth straight quarter, up 13% with growth across all 3 businesses, while returns improved to over 14%. Client investment assets were up 14% and net new investment assets have reached $30 billion so far this year. Almost 2/3s of that NNIA growth came from deepening relationships with our existing clients and referrals from the retail bank to Citigold were up 23%.

So you are now starting to see the tangible benefits of integrating our retail branches into wealth. In U.S. consumer cards, investments in our products and partners, which shows up in both revenues and expenses impacted our operating leverage this quarter. But it's these investments, such as our acquisition of the AA Barclays portfolio in April that will drive future growth in our general purpose portfolio. Furthermore, our resilient customer base kept fueling underlying drivers.

Loan growth higher spend and better credit performance than expected. This resulted in the RoTCE increasing to 22%. During the quarter, we completed the sale of our consumer business in Poland. We also closed on the sale of an additional 22.6% equity stake of Banamex and we remain on track to close on an additional 1.4% this summer, which will bring the total amount to 49%. Simplifying Citi through these international consumer divestitures along with higher PPNR and lower stress losses contributed directly to our strongest showing in the Fed stress test last month, and we plan to increase our dividend by 12%. We launched $30 billion common stock repurchase commitment by buying back $4 billion during the quarter.

Our CET1 ratio stood at 12.8% and remains about 120 basis points above our current regulatory minimum. We continued to make progress in our transformation with a large body of work passing internal audit validation. As much of the transformation work winds down, we are not only taking down expenses, but we're applying what we learned about large-scale implementation to integrate AI into our businesses and functions wherever it makes sense. Nearly 9 of 10 of our people are using our AI tools. That's not only driving productivity and client experience but also growth, helping us bring products to market significantly faster as we're doing with payment Express in services and with our Citi Wealth Advisor Insights platform.

On the macro front, the conflict in the Middle East has weighed a bit on global growth, whilst giving inflation a second wind. In the U.S., growth is roughly where it was a year ago and the labor market remains stable. But it's a nuanced story because that growth is not lifting all boats. The extraordinary investment in AI and its supporting cost of semiconductors, data centers and related infrastructure is providing a tailwind in the U.S. and parts of Asia, while a more vulnerable Europe, faces yet another competitive headwind.

Above all these dynamics, we see real resiliency in our corporate clients who bring strong balance sheets and a proven adeptness of managing the complex environment. You've heard me say many times that Citi's success won't follow a straight line that the rigor and consistency with which we have executed the strategy we first laid out for you in 2022 and reinforce at our Investor Day in May, has put Citi back in the game. And our people deserve enormous credit for getting us to this position. We have elevated Citi into a new growth mode. Our returns are improving, and the conversation around this firm has changed.

We continue to do the things we said we would do such as investing in the businesses, whilst we take down our transformation and stranded costs. Despite the usual seasonality in the second half of the year, we feel very good about our ability to hit our 2026 return target. And then to reach the targets we shared with you in May. And to be clear, if conditions stay constructive, we intend to take advantage of that. We'll lean in with additional investments and other actions to create value for our shareholders over the medium term. A stronger environment isn't just upside to report. It's an opportunity we will put to work.

And finally, as you are all aware, this is Jenn Landis' final earnings call before she becomes our Chief Financial Officer for markets. Jenn came to Citi almost 5 years ago, just after I became CEO. Over that time, she has reestablished trust and credibility with the investor community and rebuilt our Investor Relations team, which is now recognized as one of the best on the Street. You can see her fingerprints on our disclosures, our financial communications and events such as our recent Investor Day. She has worked tirelessly to make sure you understand where we are going and how we will get there. So Jenn, thank you very much indeed.

Before I turn it over to Gonzalo, I would like to thank FIFA for scheduling Argentina's semifinal match in Atlanta for tomorrow and not for today. I shudder to think what Joyce Gonzalo would have made in that situation. Gonzalo, over to you, and then we will be delighted, as always, to take your questions.

Thank you, Jane, and good morning, everyone. First, I can neither confirm nor deny what decision I would have made in that situation. And second, I would like to echo James sentiment regarding Jenn's final earnings call as Head of Investor Relations. Jenn has been a great partner to me to Jane and to the broader leadership team. Since taking over Investor Relations in 2021, she has built strong relationships across the investor and analyst community and help ensure that Citi strategy is communicated with clarity, credibility and consistency. And we look forward to seeing her continue to make an impact in her new role. On behalf of the entire management team, thank you, Jenn, for your leadership, your counsel and your many contributions.

I'm also very pleased to have Marco Pillage stepping into the role of Head of Strategy, M&A and Investor Relations. Margo comes to this role after 5 years as Jane's Chief of Staff and brings deep knowledge of our strategy, priorities and organization after more than 2 decades at the firm. I look forward to working with Margo in her new role, and I know she will do a tremendous job.

Now getting to the quarter, I'll start with a firm-wide financial results, focusing on year-on-year comparisons, unless I indicate otherwise, then review the performance of our businesses in greater detail. On Slide 4, we show financial results for the full firm, which demonstrate the progress we've made and the momentum of our strategy. This quarter, we reported net income of $5.8 billion, EPS of $3.15 and an RoTCE of 13% on $24.8 billion of revenues, generating positive operating leverage. Total revenues were up 14% with growth driven by each of our businesses and legacy franchises, including the impact of FX translation, partially offset by a decline in corporate other.

Net interest income, excluding markets, which you can see on the bottom left side of the slide, was up 6%, driven by growth across all businesses and legacy franchises, partially offset by a decline in corporate other. Noninterest revenues, excluding markets, were up 39%, driven by growth in all other, banking, services and wealth, partially offset by a decline in U.S. consumer cards. Excluding all other as well as markets, noninterest revenues were up 18%, and total market revenues were up 17%. Expenses of $14.2 billion were up 5% with an efficiency ratio of below 58%, which I'll provide details on shortly.

And cost of credit was $2.5 billion, primarily consisting of net credit losses in U.S. consumer cards as well as a firm-wide net ACL build of $118 million. Looking at the firm on a year-to-date basis, we generated positive operating leverage with total revenues up 14%, driven by growth across all businesses and legacy franchises, including the impact of FX translation, partially offset by a decline in corporate other and expenses, which have also been impacted by FX translation, up 6% as we reported an RoTCE of 13.1%.

On Slide 5, we show the expense and efficiency trend over the past 5 quarters. As I just mentioned, expenses increased 5%, primarily driven by our continued investments in the front office as well as higher volume and revenue-related expenses. This increase is reflected in compensation and transactional and product servicing costs. And we also saw an impact from FX translation across our expense base.

The benefits of our past investments and productivity efforts have allowed us to gain efficiencies across our expense base and reduce our headcount to 219,000 with over $800 million of severance incurred year-to-date. We continue to invest in areas such as technology, including AI, and we would expect an increase in productivity saves over time. And it is worth noting that this expense increase was against 14% revenue growth, resulting in an improvement in our operating efficiency of over 500 basis points.

On Slide 6, we show U.S. cards and corporate credit metrics. As I mentioned, the firm's cost of credit was $2.5 billion, primarily consisting of net credit losses in U.S. consumer cards as well as a firm-wide net ACL build. Our reserves incorporate an 8-quarter weighted average unemployment rate of 5.3%, which includes a downside scenario average unemployment rate of nearly 7%. At the end of the quarter, we had over $22 billion in total reserves with a reserve to funded loans ratio of 2.5%. We continue to maintain a high credit quality card portfolio with approximately 86% of balances extended to consumers with FICO scores of 660 or higher and a reserve to funding loan ratio in our U.S. cards portfolio of 7.6%.

Looking at the right-hand side of the slide, you can see that our corporate exposure is 79% investment grade and in the quarter, corporate non-accruing loans as well as corporate net credit losses remain low. We are confident in the high-quality nature of our portfolios, which reflect our robust risk appetite framework rigorous client selection and our focus on using the balance sheet in the context of the overall client relationship.

Turning to capital and the balance sheet on Slide 7, where I will speak to sequential variances. Our total assets of $2.9 trillion increased 4%, driven by growth in trading-related assets. Net end-of-period loans increased 4%, primarily driven by growth in markets and U.S. cards. Our $1.5 trillion deposit base remains well diversified and increased 3% driven by growth in services as we continue to deepen with clients with a focus on high-quality operating deposits. We maintained a 114% average LCR and over $1 trillion of available liquidity resources.

In the second quarter, we continued to deploy capital to support client-driven growth while at the same time, prioritizing the return of capital to common shareholders, as evidenced by the $4 billion in buybacks. We ended the quarter at 12.8% CET1 ratio under the binding standardized approach, approximately 120 basis points above the 11.6% regulatory capital requirement as we continue to target a CET1 ratio around 12.6% under the existing rules and requirements.

While our LCV remains at 3.6% as we announced in June, we were pleased to see the continued improvement in our DFAST results and the corresponding implied SUV of 3.3%, which marks a reduction for the third consecutive year, demonstrating the execution of our strategy and improved business performance, which has resulted in growth in PPNR and greater resilience in stress. And as a reminder, we plan to increase our quarterly common stock dividend by 12% beginning in the third quarter, subject to quarterly board approval.

Turning to the businesses on Slide 8. We show the results for services in the second quarter. Revenues were up 18%, driven by growth across both TTS and Securities Services, reflecting the benefits of our continued investments in the business. NII increased 18%, primarily driven by higher average deposit balances. NIR increased 16% as we continue to see strong activity and engagement with both corporate and commercial clients and across key high-growth segments, including e-commerce and fintech, driving momentum across underlying drivers with cross-border transaction value up 13% and assets under custody and administration up 22%, which includes the impact of market valuations as well as new assets onboarded.

Expenses increased 5%, driven by higher volume-related expenses as well as higher performance and other compensation expenses. Average loans increased 10%, primarily driven by export agency finance and working capital loans. Average deposits increased 19% with growth across both North America and international, largely driven by an increase in operating deposits as we continue to deepen relationships with existing clients and onboard new clients. Services generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $2.6 billion with an RoTCE of 30.9% in the quarter and 29% year-to-date.

Turning to markets on Slide 9. Revenues were up 17%, driven by growth across both equities and fixed income with strong momentum across client segments, including corporates, asset managers, hedge funds and banks. Fixed income revenues were up 7%, driven by growth in spread products and other fixed income as well as rates and currencies.

Spread Products and other fixed income was up 25%, driven by growth across both financing and credit trading and spread products as well as growth in commodities and rates and currencies was up 1%, with growth in currencies on higher volumes, reflecting strong client engagement, primarily offset by lower revenues in rates. Equities revenues were up 45% driven by continued momentum in derivatives and Prime Services as we grew prime balances by nearly 60%, with growth across both new and existing clients as well as higher market valuations. Expenses increased 8%, driven by higher performance-related compensation and volume-related expenses. Average loans increased 29%, primarily driven by financing activity in spread products. Markets generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $2.4 billion with an RoTCE of 17% in the quarter and 17.8% year-to-date.

Turning to banking on Slide 10. Revenues were up 34%, driven by growth in investment banking, partially offset by a decline in corporate lending, excluding mark-to-market on loan hedges. Investment banking revenues increased 44%, reflecting a strong wallet driven by growth in DCM and ECM, partially offset by a decline in M&A. DCM was up 65%, resulting in our second best quarter ever with growth across leveraged finance and investment grade. ECM was up 92% amid very strong market conditions with growth across all products led by strength in IPOs and follow-ons where we participated in 8 of the top 10 ECM deals of the quarter.

And while M&A was down 4%, we maintained a healthy pipeline and continue to have meaningful strategic dialogue with our clients. Corporate lending revenues, excluding mark-to-market on loan hedges, declined 4%. Expenses increased 7%, driven by higher performance-related compensation and investments as well as higher volume-related expenses. Cost of credit was $242 million, consisting of net credit losses of $138 million and a net ACL build of $104 million. Net credit losses were driven by loan sales, which we had previously reserved for. And the net ACL build was driven by exposure growth largely offset by reserve releases covering losses on the loan sales.

Average loans increased 5% as growth in loans associated with investment banking activity more than offset the decline in corporate lending balances. Banking generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $350 million with an RoTCE of 18% in the quarter and 16.9% year-to-date.

Turning to Wealth on Slide 11. Revenues were up 13%, driven by growth across all businesses with 17% growth in Citigold and the retail bank, 5% in the private bank and 3% in wealth and work. NII, which you can see on the bottom left side of the slide, increased 18%, driven by higher deposit spreads and average balances, partially offset by lower mortgage spreads. NIR was up 4% and as we continue to see growth in investment fee revenues, which were up 20%, primarily offset by the absence of the approximate $80 million gain on sale of our alternatives fund platform, which occurred in the second quarter last year and the loss of fee revenue from the sale of the trust business in 2025.

Net new investment asset flows were $15.7 billion in the quarter, contributing to over $56 billion in the last 12 months, representing 9% organic growth. Overall, client investment assets were up 14%, which also includes the impact of market valuations and was partially offset by the sale of trust business assets. Expenses increased 3% driven by higher technology costs and higher performance-related compensation. Average loans were up 5% as we continue to grow securities-based lending and deploy balance sheet to support clients and drive client investment asset growth.

Average deposits were up 4%, primarily driven by growth in the private bank. Wealth had a pretax margin of 23%, generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $583 million with an RoTCE of 14.4% in the quarter and 12.6% year-to-date.

Turning to U.S. consumer cards on Slide 12. As Jane mentioned, this quarter, we completed the acquisition of the additional American Airlines co-branded card portfolio, and our results reflect the impact of the over $6 billion in loans for more than 2 million accounts onboarding in April. In the quarter, revenues were up 1%, driven by growth in NII, primarily offset by a decline in NIR. NII was up 5%, driven by higher interest-earning balances. NIR was down 47%, driven by higher accruals for partner payments and new account acquisition costs, reflecting increased investments, partially offset by higher annual fees and net interchange. Including the additional American Airlines portfolio acquisition and momentum across underlying drivers, we saw general purpose cards acquisitions up 135%, spend volume up 12% and average loans up 8% partially offset by declines in private label cards.

Expenses increased 10%, driven by higher severance, customer engagement costs legal expenses and increased marketing as we invest to drive future acquisitions and continued customer engagement. Cost of credit was $1.6 billion, consisting of $1.9 billion of net credit losses and a net ACL release of $232 million, driven by improved portfolio quality, including seasonal changes, largely offset by higher volume and changes in macroeconomic variables.

U.S. consumer cards delivered net income of $852 million with an RoTCE of 22% in the quarter and 20.6% year-to-date. While we expect RoTCE to remain around our through-the-cycle target for the business, in some of the next few quarters, we do expect expense growth to outpace revenue growth as we invest in the business to drive engagement and acquisitions with some of those investments reflected as contra revenue and others as expenses.

Turning to Slide 13. We show results for all other on a managed basis, which includes corporate other and legacy franchises and excludes divestiture-related items. Revenues were up 1%, driven by growth in legacy franchises, offset by a decline in corporate other. Growth in legacy franchisees was driven by Mexico Consumer, which includes momentum in underlying business drivers and the impact of Mexican peso appreciation, partially offset by the impact of continued reduction from our exit and wind-down markets.

The decline in corporate other was driven by lower NII, which included actions taken, such as those to reduce Citi's asset sensitivity due to a lower interest rate environment, largely offset by higher NIR, reflecting episodic activity. Expenses were down 3%, driven by a decline in legacy franchises as lower expenses related to exits and wind downs were primarily offset by the impact of Mexican peso appreciation as well as a decline in corporate other, which included lower transformation expenses and severance charges.

As a reminder, we will continue to look for opportunities to drive structural efficiencies, including severance to improve productivity and actions to improve our funding profile. Cost of credit was $438 million, primarily consisting of net credit losses of $366 million driven by loans in Mexico. And we've reduced the total DTAs deducted from CET1 capital held in corporate other by over $500 million year-to-date.

To close, we've included our full year 2026 outlook on Slide 14. We've made significant progress in terms of improving returns on the back of our investments, generating a year-to-date RoTCE of 13.1%. Having said that, we continue to target an RoTCE of 10% to 11% for the full year, supported by NII ex-markets growth of approximately 5% to 6% and continued NIR ex-markets growth driven by momentum in services, banking and wealth, partially offset by USCC. We expect the USCC NIR to remain in line with the second quarter's absolute level in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

In Markets, we historically have seen revenues decline approximately 20% between the first and second half of the year. And given the strong performance year-to-date, the magnitude of that decline could be greater this year. And as we've said before, we expect our full year efficiency ratio to be around 60% as we ramp up investments across the businesses in the second half and incur additional severance as we target future efficiencies. As it relates to credit, we continue to expect a total U.S. credit card NCL rate between 4% and 4.5%, while the ACL will continue to be a function of the macroeconomic environment and business volumes.

And we remain well positioned to return capital to shareholders under our $30 billion share repurchase program. As we take a step back, the results in the second quarter and first half of this year represents significant progress towards our goal of improved firm-wide and business performance.

We remain steadfast and focused on executing our transformation and confident in delivering our RoTCE target of 10% to 11% this year with a clear path to delivering higher sustainable returns going forward as we laid out at Investor Day. With that, Jenn and I would be glad to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question will come from Glenn Schorr with Evercore ISI.

Thank you. So I'm a huge fan of investing back in the business during great times, and I heard your message loud and clear, and we see your guidance. But people are trying to parse through the not-oping of the of the RTC target this year, how much -- I don't know if you can quantify in numbers, that's what I'm asking, is how much of it is conservatism and not knowing what's ahead in the second half versus investments you've already made versus investments you're going to make in the second half? I'm just trying to get through the parsing of it.

Glenn. Well, I have to say, with a good first half under our belt, we've shifted our focus from the '26 waypoint to the near-term and medium-term targets and the investments behind them. As you say, we've operated in a good environment so far this year. I think the whole industry has benefited from revenue growth and benign credit. What I think I'm most proud of is that we've generated real alpha, its outperformance that we created is not just a rising tide.

And you've seen us pay back with consistent expense and capital discipline whilst investing. Now as you say, how strong the second half turns out largely depends on the macro and the market backdrop. And that's true for everybody. we are deliberately investing for long-term growth and for improved returns. And a couple of weeks or a few weeks ago, we laid these out in the investment plan in detail at Investor Day.

And you see we just have a lot of opportunities here. And we're funding these investments whilst holding our efficiency ratio for the year around 60%. And there's real discipline be underneath that number. So to be clear, if conditions stay constructive, we intend to take full advantage of that. We will lean in bringing forward investments and other actions that will create value for our shareholders over the medium term. And as I said in my opening, a stronger environment isn't just upside to report, it's an opportunity that we're going to put to work. So I'm very comfortable with our 10% to 11% number.

Is the cost -- I'm good at math, 13 for half and 10% to 11% would mean significantly lower in the second half. I'm just trying to get at is -- is that conservatism based on, like you said, 20% seasonality and more this year because the first half was so good. So should we -- I just want to get our collective mindset in the right spot? Is the second half possibly a single digit to 10% return with no additional investment?

Thank you, Glenn. I'll take this one. Even though I may disappoint you not giving you the precise math on every month in the forthcoming couple of quarters. But I think it's a fair question. And just to emphasize a couple of things that I think Jane just mentioned, number one, and you alluded to them, too. Number one is there's a pocket of uncertainty that we want to make sure that we navigate and we're able to land, and we've spoken about this in the past, even for our near term and medium-term targets, and we want to be able to deliver under a variety of environments.

Secondly, the seasonality that you just mentioned and I alluded to in my remarks, especially as it relates to markets, not only, right, because other businesses also have pockets of seasonality, but markets is the more pronounced one.

And the third one is what Jane just spoke about, which is making sure that we have the flexibility to take advantage of those opportunities if the markets are constructive. And that could come in a couple of flavors. It could come -- we've spoken about the investment themes at Investor Day a couple of months ago across each of the 5 businesses. So we will consider leaning into those and accelerating more of those. We will also look at -- you will remember that I spoke about sources of structural efficiency to fund our growth over the next couple of years, we may look at accelerating some of the structural efficiency actions and in that case, take more severance in the second half. As you can see, so far to date, we're already at $800 million for for half of the year. We're already basically at the level that we were a year ago.

So if we see opportunities, we may do a bit more than we originally envisioned. And then the third piece, as Jane was mentioning actions as well, is we will also look not only at structural efficiency opportunities, but it could also be structural funding opportunities. If we see any opportunities to take actions to improve our funding profile over the long run, we will do those. You saw us do a little bit of that in the second quarter where we tendered for $1.2 billion of debt. And so we'll look at those opportunities to Jane's point, not to maximize the waypoint, but to actually look at the durability of the returns going forward.

Your next question will come from Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo.

I think, Gonzalo, you're going to be the Messi of CFOs, I think we need to understand a little bit more about your prior answer. And I think what you're saying is you'll use kind of the excess earnings above what you had expected to front load or accelerate structural changes that will improve your future funding efficiency and growth. But the problem is, again, 13% return in the first half of the year, that would imply 9% the second half of the year, efficiency, 57% in the first half of the year. To get to 60%, that would imply maybe 63%. So I think I think what the stock market saying right now, I think what we're hearing is that you're guiding for a much worse second half of the year than the first half, and that may or may not be your intention. So if you could simply clarify what you really are saying about the expenses and what areas would you like to kind of accelerate spending on when it comes to revenue growth?

Mike, let me just jump in here. What we're saying is we're focused on the near-term and the medium-term targets, not on the way point. I think that I can't imagine this investor that doesn't want us to make sure that we are taking full advantage of the market conditions, particularly if they're good in the second half to be able to make the investments and take actions that will drive growth for the next number of years. And that's where -- and that's the message that The Street should be taking from this, but Gonzalo, over to you.

I think that's 100% in sync with what we're saying, right? We're not saying, Mike, that we're expecting a worse second half, there is seasonality to it, right? If you look at the historicals, you will be able to see it. And that plays through not only on the revenues that I highlighted in my remarks as it relates to markets, you'll see that playing through generally in returns and operating efficiency over a reasonable period of time in the past. But what we're looking forward to is to Jane's point, making sure that we put the opportunity to work where we see a chance in order to really solidify that path to near-term and medium-term returns, which is the ultimate goal, right? It's really driving the durability and the improvement that we want to know that we want to drive in order to close the gap with our peers. As we said, we intend to do.

Yes. We're playing the long game.

And a separate question related to your remediation efforts. Last quarter, you said you were 90% plus done and do you expect it to be 100% on sometime in the near term, I think you said that at Investor Day, are you at 93%, 99%. When do you think you get to 100% and you turn it over to the regulators to make their decision?

I'm not going to get -- I'm not going to get into the game of whether we're at 95%, 96%, 97%. We are largely now operating at the Citi target state. The important piece I mentioned in my opening remarks, is a large amount of our work on the consent order, successfully passed through audit validation this past quarter. and therefore, can get handed over to our regulators. And as you know, we've still got remaining work that relates to enhancing data governance, particularly for regulatory reporting, and we continue to make steady progress on it.

In terms of the timing of the removal of the consent orders, that is fully at the discretion of our regulators, both in terms of reviewing the work that we've done, as we hand it over and then going through their closure process and that takes time. But I do reemphasize for our investors. Whenever we complete each body of work, we begin taking down the remediation expenses, and you can see that in our expense line. It's creating the capacity to further invest in the businesses. That's the additional $5 billion of investments that we talked about in May, and we don't need to wait for the orders to close to do this, that is happening already.

Your next question will come from Ken Usdin with Autonomous Research.

I have a question on the NII side, on the ex-markets basis. Strong start also here in the first half of the year where you're already above the 5% to 6% in the first half and deposit growth continues the pace, obviously, as you discussed, especially in services. I want to understand also do you have any conservatism in terms of that outlook in terms of why you may not be able to do better than that 5% to 6% on the core NII ex-markets given the trends that we're already seeing so far?

Thank you very much, Ken, for the question. I think we can see in -- through NII ex markets, I think, is a good window into: number one, our strategy working; number two, I think the operating rigor and yes, we continue to be constructive on our progress forward, and we're comfortable with the guidance that we provided would be the short answer. But just to unpack that for a bit, so just to recap the guidance for everyone, the guidance on NII ex-markets for the year is 5% to 6% revenue growth, that's anchored by mid-single-digit growth in the underlying drivers.

In the second quarter, our NII ex-market growth was 6%. So it's within the range of the guidance that we provided for the second quarter. And that's in line with seeing deposits growing at about 12% on average. As you mentioned, services really good momentum and 19%, wealth, 4%, most of it coming from the private bank and loans growing in that mid-single-digit range at around 6% for the quarter year-on-year supported by services, cards and wealth. And so when we step back and we look at the picture of NII ex-markets, we're comfortable with our guidance.

I think [indiscernible] alluded to this in our Investor Day as it relates to not expecting that deposit growth that we've seen on 19% will not normalize over a period of time. And so we expect that normalization to play through, but we're pleased with the trajectory that we're seeing. Of course, Services had a very strong quarter. We reached $1 trillion in deposits for the first time ever. The good news about that, I think, is that those deposits are coming from operating deposits. We're not chasing low-value deposits. The team has been very disciplined on pricing, and that's what you see in the NII pop up there.

Okay. And then just one follow-up. You mentioned on potentially some additional severance in the second half. Can you remind us just the severance you took your quarter-to-date in the first half? And then what -- maybe you can help us with the type of magnitude of severance that you might book in the second, so we can kind of understand also some of that future like you said, to get future efficiencies, right? Is it -- help us understand like how bulky that might be in terms of being run rate?

Yes. No, thank you. Well, we may not provide exact guidance on what we expect from the second half of severance. Let me recap a little bit what we had said and the position that we're in now. So the first quarter was about $500 million. The second quarter just now is another $300 million for an $800 million year-to-date.

You're kind of seeing the acceleration of those actions play through in the head count you see there on Slide 5. And then to recap last year, it was about $800 million also. When we gave guidance for the year, we expect it to be at around that same level or slightly below from a prior year. Obviously, sitting here now and to the point that Jane and I were making, we will still be open-minded about the second half if we see opportunities. If I anchor it back to what we said a couple of months ago at Investor Day, remember, what I said about structural efficiencies to help fund those investments that we want to make over the near term are anchor on 3 legs, right?

Leg number 1 is stranded cost, and you're seeing those already come down from the $1.3 billion a year ago. to about a run rate of $800 million if you look at our second quarter numbers for $200 million that you can annualize. We talked about transformation costs, and Jane just mentioned that as we reach completion of the programs. We're taking action on the portion of the transformation cost that is temporary. That sits in corporate other. I had mentioned that at our Investor Day. You remember, the peak was $3.3 billion of that total expense. About half of those siting corporate other which are the ones that are temporary in nature, not the ones that are structural in nature, and we're starting to see those come down.

And then the third leg of that structural efficiency push is the productivity opportunities that we see from technology and AI automation. And I spoke about how we have more than 100-plus processes that we're mapping end-to-end, where we see opportunities for further automation. We look at this every week and and our COO; and Jim Ryan, our our Head of Technology, and we're very purposely trying to make progress on that. So as we see opportunities and if we see opportunities, this is what I was referring to. I'm trying to connect with us here in the second half to accelerate some of those productivity opportunities. We may take more severance in the second half, but we're not providing a specific number now.

And on North Star with all of this is pulling forward higher sustainable returns.

Your next question will come from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America.

I guess, Gonzalo, just to follow up, I think -- on this, I think, I mean the stock is down 5%. I think to Mike's question earlier about the back half being worse than the first half. I understand that's not what the message was. The message was if the revenue environment is stronger, you're going to take advantage of that by investing. But maybe as we look through in terms of the momentum you had in the first half, yet there's some seasonality as we look into the -- into the third quarter and later in the year. But is there an obvious reason? Like are you -- is the point here that if the revenue backdrop is strong, we could still maybe replicate the strength more or less that we've seen in the first half? Or are you expect -- should we be expecting a step shift due to 2 reasons: one, seasonality; and second, the pull forward in the investments that you've talked about multiple times this call.

Ebrahim, thanks very much. Maybe let me start by not reiterating, but emphasizing a couple of points. The first one is we are pleased to see, and we are not expecting to stop, just to be clear, the commercial intensity that we're driving our execution rigor and focus the already good results we're seeing from past investments. That's -- we're not planning on that to stop. And of course, if the environment is constructive, we expect to see continued momentum, right? I spoke for a minute just now about NII. We have good momentum in our services business, where we're seeing good engagement and higher win rates with new mandates deepening relationships with existing clients and some of the investments that we made in our platform paying off. We had a very good quarter in markets, as you can see.

We're making investments in talent, in technology. The market is constructive. It's good to see the business model working in a diversified way so that not every cylinder needs to be firing right completely in order to have very good results as we just did. Banking, some of the investors we're making, the momentum, the intensity, that business driving in the business playing through. You're seeing the improvement on wealth, right, in terms of the returns being driven there, both in NII and NIA, growing at 9%. Our deposits growing, our NII growing.

Many of those things have an element of sustainability in them as well. And cards, I mentioned a little bit of the dynamics because we are trying to invest in the business. you can look at the drivers, right, even for the last few quarters, not just the ones this quarter to have the element of Barclays and American Airlines portfolio coming in, and they're healthy because we're investing in the business, and we know that's a high return in business. All those things, we expect to continue to play through in the second half. And the only thing we're saying is that we want to make sure that we are accounting for uncertainty. We're accounting for seasonality and we have the flexibility to position the firm even better for the future to come.

Got it. And maybe just, Gonzalo, I think you talked about the USCC in the back half around revenue versus expenses. If you don't mind, double-clicking on that in terms of the trend we should expect in the back half? And just over a more longer period of time, what you expect on the revenue versus expense trajectories there?

Yes. No, thank you for the question. So I think when you look at cards, there's a couple of things that stand out to me and you can see them in the second quarter, so you're going to actually anchor them on the numbers we have seen. The first thing is we spoke about how the through-the-cycle return target for our cars business is low 20s. So the first principle for us is the returns discipline, right? And you can see that we are -- while we're investing, and I'll talk about that more in a second, we are keeping that high focus on returns and the rigor and this is true across our proprietary book, but also every single one of our partner relationships. And you've seen us, as Pam mentioned in our Investor Day, relationships that don't pass our return target. So that discipline to me is super important.

Even in a quarter where we can -- you can see our investment level, you still can see a 22% return there high for our firm. The second piece is we spoke about our strategy. And our strategy has 2 components, 2 big elements that we spoke about. One of them was the shift towards general purpose credit cards. That's been driven by the customer behavior. You see it in the drivers.

If you look at the bottom right side of the [indiscernible] page, which is Page 12, you can see the bifurcation of the drivers, and that -- those are the customers telling us how their behavior is driving the business. And you can see that already in our numbers, right? At the end of last year, 82% of our book was a purpose cards. This quarter, we are at 84%. So over time, you're going to continue to see us increase that purely because one is going to grow faster than the other.

And the second leg is we said we're going to make investments, right? And now you're seeing that play through this quarter. And as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, you can expect that over the next few quarters, there's going to be a few quarters where the expense growth will be greater than the revenue. than the revenue growth. And you should know that we are comfortable with that because, number one, we're keeping the return focus very sharp. And number two, we know that these investments pay off. So this is a deliberate choice to invest in a high return in business while keeping that return focus in the forefront.

And then last piece I'll mention on investments, some of what you're seeing -- remember, as a reminder, the investments in the car business, they play both in terms of expenses, but they also have a contra revenue component because a lot of the acquisition activity place as a contract revenue, right? And so -- what you're seeing us do is you're seeing us invest in acquisitions.

You're seeing us invest in our product capabilities into our client experience, into the loyalty and engagement, which is something that is key so that we can be top of wallet as well as in our partnerships as we did with the Barclays portfolio as well. And so those key pieces are critical. You are seeing as co-brand airport lounges with American Airlines into the U.S., you can already see in a few airports. So you're seeing us lean forward in a business that is high return.

Your next question will come from John McDonald with Truist.

Gonzalo, could you remind us in terms of the capital target, you mentioned 12.6 for now at Investor Day, you noted 13.1 by 2028 to accommodate higher G-SIB. But broader, what could lead that to be better along the way between potential rule changes, structural improvement for Citi and maybe your own lowering of your own discretionary buffer. Can you just give us some thoughts on the capital path, please?

Thanks very much, John, for the question. So yes, just to recap where we are in this quarter, we're at 12.8% CET1, that's 120 basis points above our regulatory requirement of 11.6%, as you mentioned. And then maybe playing -- and thank you also for reminding everyone about the 13.1 because of course, we embedded as far as capital assumptions for our return targets in the near and medium term, equates to the reality and the regulatory regime that we are operating under today, right? We don't -- we didn't bake in any assumptions about what would look like potentially. So I think you hit on a couple of those areas already, but let me piece them out a little bit.

So of course, we're waiting for the finalization of the rules as it relates to Basel III to G-SIB and in particular, the SUV. As I mentioned in the past, Basel III and G-SIB provide us in our early analysis with a moderate net positive position and that emanates from -- on the positive side, the G-SIB coefficient playing through as well as some of the RWA weights in retail and corporate, and that is partially mitigated by the operating risk and the market risk factors that I think a lot of people are familiar with at this point. And so that could be one element that plays through.

The second piece is the stress capital buffer. And the stars capital buffer, there's a couple of vectors there, right? One of them is, of course, the final rules, and we think there should be opportunities for us to benefit from that when they become final, but importantly, and more within our control and hopefully, the DFAS results even if they don't take hold really for this year, and we will see on the back of the new rules in October '27, the real changes, hopefully, as a signal you can take away, and that's how we saw it, the 30 basis point improvement, the third year in a row of improvement of that SUV that came for us down from the 4.3% to the 3.6% that we're under right now and the [indiscernible] results that just came out, take it down to another 30 basis points to 3.3%.

That tells you that how the strategy is working, right? And we talked about this at Investor Day. Strategy working in terms of we have exited the international consumer franchises, number one. Number two, our PPNR position, continue to sequentially improve year after year. And so our loss absorption capacity improves. So even in the absence of any model enhancements that come out from the rules, you can see our strategy at work already also being a tailwind, and we hope that, that -- those 2 factors will pay through an important role.

And then to your last point on the buffer, I think, of course, we will wait until all 3 sets of rules are solidified to evaluate our position for now. We're comfortable we are, and we're managing to around that target of 100 basis points that we mentioned before.

Okay. And then maybe a follow-up on that is on the DTA utilization. Could you give some more color on what drove the nice step down in DTA this quarter. And just a reminder of the path that you're hoping to see over the next 2 years for that to come down from, I think, ending this year at $13 billion going down to $7 billion.

Yes. Thanks very much for the question. And we know that DTA is an area where we have to demonstrate the performance because the last couple of years, we have not consumed as much. But hopefully, you're starting to see a couple of dots there on the page. So just to recap briefly, our starting position at the end of last year was $13.9 billion of the disallowed portion of the DTA. Our position right now is $13.4 billion. So year-to-date, we have consumed about $500 million of that. As a reminder, there's carryback support that builds up in Q1 and then starts to wear off during the year. So you have an element of that playing through. And then our U.S. profitability that we disclosed last year was about $4 billion.

This year, we expect to make good progress in that. And you heard from all my colleagues, the business heads talk about it at Investor Day. And you're seeing it play through in the second quarter, right? When you look at the deposit growth in services, the 19%, a good portion of that growth came from North America. When you're seeing the strong quarters in markets and banking, a good portion of activity in both of those businesses comes from the U.S. The improvement in returns from wealth, right? Wealth coming from 7.7% to 10.8% to now 14.4 RoTCE. A good portion of that activity comes from the improvements in the affluent business in the retail bank and across the franchise that is North America centric. And then finally, of course, the returns in cards, which are also improving year-on-year.

So all of those areas and the focus and I've spoken about before, how Jane has made sure that we are all held accountable in our scorecards for this. will, hopefully, over time, demonstrate to you through the numbers, how that comes through. As I always say internally, and I repeat it externally, you need 2 dots to draw a line. So we're pleased to see the first dot here in the second quarter and we look forward to continuing to demonstrate progress in this space.

And sorry, a final reminder, I guided earlier in the year that the full year target was $800 million of burn down of DTA. And so we've done $500 million of the $800 million year-to-date.

Your next question will come from Manan Gosalia with Morgan Stanley.

So for the elevated investment spend in the back half of the year, can you help us with any specifics there in terms of these specifically investments you were planning to make in 2027 that you now have the opportunity to do in the back half of the year? And I guess, how quickly do you expect to see the returns of this higher investment spend. Does that give you the ability to get to the medium-term targets maybe sooner than before?

So at Investor Day, we laid out the specific investments that we're making in quite a lot of detail. So we'll be looking at what are the opportunities to pull some of those forward. as we talked about, and it would be pretty well across the board. There's nothing specifically. I also do want to emphasize. These are -- we are not looking at anything inorganic. I think I've been very clear about that at Investor Day and in the last couple of earnings calls, when we're talking investments, these are purely organic. But Manan, just to assume we're looking at a number of the different investments we talked about, where we can pull them forward and as Gonzalo alluded, if there's any severance and other pieces as we accelerate productivity gains, we'll do so too.

Got it. And maybe if we can talk about pipelines in investment banking, a clearly very strong performance here. I think you noted that M&A pipelines are strong. But if you could talk about in general, how you're seeing revenue opportunities across that business as we look out into the next year or so.

Look, the level of activity is very strong. The pipeline is very healthy. And we're also in a financial market as we looking for reasons to buy. I think the central CEO question right now across sectors is do we invest for growth now? Or are we preserving optionality. And AI is dominating a lot of the conversations. So tech, data center, energy, defense CapEx is accelerating. Companies are accessing the public equity and bond markets alongside bank debt in size, SK Hynix. For example, last week is another testament to that an offering by the way that we led. And wherever there's a bottleneck in that whole energy power compute mentor memory ecosystem. We're seeing a lot of activity. So we have to see -- we'll probably have the summer lull as everyone takes a bit of a break. We'll have midterms coming up, and the wildcard really is geopolitics. But we're certainly entering the second half with a good pipeline.

Your next question will come from Jim Mitchell with Seaport Global.

Maybe just a follow-up on capital. As you noted, the stress test, you saw about 30 bps of improvements based on similar rules for last year. Seems like model enhancements are likely to lower the volatility in the SCB going forward and likely improve it and profitability is getting better have more certainty on the other regulations. Is there a time when you start to question a 100 basis point buffer, I guess, is my question? And can you run a thinner buffer and use that excess capital while your stock is still in the low tangible book multiple still kind of in the low 1%, 1.5% range?

Yes. Let me reemphasize what Gonzalo said earlier. We're not looking at changing the buffer right now. There's quite a lot of uncertainty in certainly the geopolitical and other environment. So we're not looking at changing it, but we are looking forward to the continued strengthening of our PPNR continued lower stress losses and also getting the models to be an accurate reflection of our business.

We think they overstate risk in a number of areas, treatment of our DTA is a sizable example, double counting of operational market risk is also another area that has a sizable impact. So the biggest upside is going to come from what we hope we will see, which is the new models coming out that are an accurate reflection of the actual risk, and that will have the biggest impact on SCB, but until they are issued, we won't know. And obviously, we hope G-SIB will be addressed better than it has been in the initial proposal.

Okay. Fair enough. Just in cards and consumer, delinquency is down despite sort of years, I guess, that many have had around rising inflation and the impact on the consumer. So what are you seeing in consumer credit and consumer behavior? And does it look like these favorable trends are continuing?

Yes. Thank you. So I think a couple of thoughts there. First, we're seeing a stable spread environment. The U.S. consumer is showing up as -- and I know I sound like a broken record from a few quarters, but the U.S. consumer has been resilient, right? And you can see that the spend.

Even if you take out our spend the part of the Barclays American Airlines book this quarter, you still see 6% to 7%, 7% and ex the gas inflation in the quarter. You're hearing around 6%. That's very healthy as it relates to the spend and in line or on the higher end versus the last few quarters. Then when you look at the delinquencies and the net credit losses, you can see that across the portfolios, right, both delinquency and credit losses are down year-on-year. So across kind of the 4 key metrics.

And when we look at our leading indicators of collections and the usual pockets that you look at when you're trying to seek for stress, you're really seeing an environment that is stable. As Jane mentioned in her remarks, credit has been in line or better than our expectations. That's also why when we guided the range for this year, the 4% to 4.5%. We anchored it on. If you actually -- I know we used to look at the business with a slightly different lens. But if you do the math, this is a lower range than the one we've had in the past, and that's a reflection of we're seeing the environment.

And as you know, because of the write-off rules, which are 180 and 120, depending on the [indiscernible] alone, we have a pretty decent sense as to what the rest of the year paints, and we see that a bit of stability. Again, subject to the watch outs, right? And you mentioned some of them, right? They watch out on inflation and what happens with that, which I know we had a better read just now. What's the relationship between that inflation and the wages, right, the savings rate impact on that for clients and ultimately, the unemployment, which has been relatively in equilibrium for the last few weeks. And so we're constantly looking at that. But so far, it's a constructive environment.

Your next question will come from Erika Najarian with UBS.

Just one follow-up. It was actually a part of Manan's question. We're hearing you loud and clear in terms of the second half investment spend. I guess the question I wanted to reask is Jane, you're not focused on the way point, your focus in the near term, which is 11% to 13% RoTCE in '27, '28 and 14% to 15% medium term, sort of pulling forward the investment agenda, will that enable you to not just hit those RoTCE those return targets but potentially be sort of in the better half of that range. And additionally, does the consent order getting lifted free up additional expenses that you can reinvest back into the franchise?

Erica, Look, the outperformance -- possible outperformance that we've been seeing and the benefit, it allows us the optionality to invest or pull forward where that makes sense. We we didn't see accretive opportunities would, of course, let it play through the bottom line and to the return side. But I think the message you should be taking away loud and clear is we're seeing opportunities to invest will be driving higher sustainable returns, and we're going to take advantage of that opportunity. Don't read anything more into it. And in terms of the consent order, the timing of the lifting is in the hands of the regulators, not in ours. The timing of taking expenses down is in ours. And we have begun to do so as we finish the different bodies of work. We take those expenses down, and those are helping us fund further investments into the businesses. So that is all going -- ticking along nicely.

Next question will come from David Chiaverini with Jefferies.

So you had strong growth in deposits this quarter and good to see the cost of interest-bearing deposits stable at 2.71%. How should we think about deposit cost going forward?

Thanks very much, David, and good afternoon to you. I think when -- let me piece that out maybe between the 2 large businesses that are driving our deposit base, right? So we have services where I was mentioning a little bit earlier. We were able to drive 19% growth year-on-year on average deposits and reaching over 1 trillion milestone there. And I mentioned it a little bit briefly, but a good portion of those are operating deposits. And so when you think about pricing and rates and also what to expect going forward, at least as based on what we're seeing as of now is, yes, we have seen with an environment that's pointing to a bit higher for longer. We have seen some catch-up pricing. But as I mentioned earlier, the betas are well within our expectations, right? So they are in line with what we thought they would be. And the team has been familiar and the team have been very disciplined on pricing. So what is pleasing for me to see and what gives me comfort is that we're not chasing low-value deposit volume and that these share gains come from really driving those operating deposits across both international and North America.

Now when you look at the spread in addition to the pricing dynamics, the more we grow North America, just because it's a more competitive market, not because you're giving away price in relationship to international, you may see some mix factor playing a role there. But other than that, I think generally working well in line with expectations, a little bit of catch-up. The team is all over the pricing, and we're comfortable that our competitive advantage, which is really driving those operating deposits across our payment network really plays through. On the well side, similarly, Andy, very thoughtful about pricing there.

And the only highlight I would mention in terms of customer behavior that we have to monitor for as it relates to how rates evolve especially if they go up is how much of those clients are seeking yield. And you do see pockets of customers seeking yield. Sometimes you may see more synthetic beta in terms of mix shifting into time deposits. So we have a couple of pockets of that. But as you can see from the NII, pretty robust and generally spreads expanding in our business in wealth. So comfortable with the position that we're in and what we're seeing there. And very important that we will keep that discipline very thoughtfully.

Great. And then shifting over to the services business. Very strong growth and momentum this quarter at 18% year-over-year revenue growth. Can you frame this level of growth relative to your medium-term outlook from the Investor Day of low to mid-single digit. What might lead you to see slower growth towards that guide from Investor Day?

Well, thanks for the question. It's a good question, David. And I think some version of that is, I think Shahmir alluded to at Investor Day as well. I think there's a couple of factors that probably play a role into how we think about it over the longer range. And one of the primary ones is the normalization of that deposit growth, right? If you look at the deposit growth between 2022 and 2025, the annualized growth rate there was about 3%. So we're hitting and we're very pleased with the momentum, the commercial intensity and the investments playing through, we're seeing a growth spurt for the last several quarters right? That puts us in the position in Q2 at the 19%. Now we do expect some normalization, right? As Shahmir mentioned a little bit earlier, we are not expecting that we will grow at 4x to 5x money supply over a long period of time.

But at the same time, we continue to make investments, and we're pleased with the momentum that we're seeing in the drivers that underpin that NII. On the NIR front, where this quarter, services delivered 16% and you're seeing there a combination of the cross-border transactions, right, and how customers are thinking about their supply chains and global commerce playing through. And at the same time, the work that we're doing on security services and how we're driving that and that obviously has an element of deposits, but has an element of AUCs and AUAs. And there, you have a combination.

You have alpha, of course, because we have pretty good win rates on new mandates and deepening relationship with existing clients. Some of those are public. And we -- and there's also a pocket of data with market valuations as well. So as you think through the near term and remember, right, the one reminder for the near term and the medium term is that I mentioned this a couple of months ago Investor Days, we have planned for our returns and our targets to be delivered under a range of different environments, right?

And one of the things that we are thoughtful about we're not assuming, right, just because we're sitting at a high part of the mountain with the sun shining and the wind on our backs, given how constructive the environment has been across the industry. We're not assuming that, that will perpetuate over the next few years. So we're looking at being thoughtful about for a range of outcomes, we will still be able to deliver the returns and the growth that we promised. But if you ask me, are there scenarios where you could do better? Yes, there are. But it's also partially market dependent.

Your next question will come from Vivek Juneja with JPMorgan.

Just a clarification. Gonzalo, you mentioned something about -- when you were talking about expenses that historically, revenue markets have all stand in the second half versus first half. Given all the comments you're hearing from up back to pipelines being very strong, which could therefore drive probably markets hold up better than expected. Is this less seasonal [indiscernible].

Vivek, you're breaking up a bit. Can you repeat the question?

Okay. Sorry. Yes. Gonzalo mentioned that historically, you've seen market revenues declined 20% versus the first half. Given the comments you're hearing from you as well as others about pipelines and market conditions are looking very good. Can -- is that historical decline less likely to occur. Is it the path is that the [indiscernible] increase that one has seen in the markets business in the second half versus first half as [indiscernible] may that be lesser given what's going on in the overall market to environment profitability as a market.

Well, thank you, Vivek. The conversation was breaking up quite a bit, but I think I got a good portion of it. So let me have a go and you tell me if I answered the question or I didn't, if that's okay with you, because it was breaking up quite a bit. I think you answered -- just to recap, I think you answered your question on our view on the second half for markets, and you were anchoring on my remarks around how historically, we see a 20% decline or thereabouts between the second half and the first half. And I thought -- 1 part of your question was because you're seeing across the industry and the client momentum being strong, would that be less of a decline this year, right, versus what I said in my remarks, if I got that right.

Yes. Yes. That's the [indiscernible].

No, no worries. So it's first of all, it's very hard to take a position, especially in the markets business because you know that from experience that this can swing in a relatively short period of time to a negative position for the industry as a whole. And so it's hard to look forward to 6 months or 5.5 months and say with certainty, it's going to land on 1 way or the other.

The historical analysis tells us that 20% that I shared before. If you could take 1 point of view, it could be, right, as I highlighted in my remarks, that first half has been very strong, right? So if that doesn't repeat, apples-to-apples, if the second half just putting seasonality to the side. If the environment is not as constructive in the second half as in the first half, you would expect a decline once you layer on the seasonality on top of it, that could be worse than the 20% half-on-half. Now you could also take a different view and say, hey, if this continues to be this constructed, right, where clients are very active in the equity space, and we continue to see good momentum in spreads and currencies as we saw this quarter, and we see those pockets remain robust.

Would you be better than the 20%. It's not an impossibility either, right? So I'm not going to sit here and tell you that that's not possible. The historical first half was really strong. You would need to have an equally constructive set of external parameters in order to justify narrowing that seasonal decline, I guess, is what I would say, if that makes sense.

Our next question will come from Gerard Cassidy with RBC.

Jane, can you -- and Gonzalo, can you share with us -- when you think of Citigroup has a unique lens as a U.S. domiciled bank on the global view. In your services business, in particular, is obviously very engaged globally and had a very, very strong quarter. Can you share with us how are the companies being able to produce such strength in view of the geopolitical situation being fairly intense or elevated. Is it because they've learned lessons from the pandemic and they're just better managed and more conservative. What's your guys' take on the health of that global corporate customer?

Yes. I do believe that the global corporate client base that we serve has been the source of resiliency as well as growth. They have extremely strong balance sheets and they have diversified revenue streams, so they are able to balance out tariffs and the various shocks that have come through. And everyone just learned how to be very adept at supply chain sort of repositioning and adjustments and to energy shocks and other elements coming through. And so they're just very adept at getting their business models to adapt swiftly to whatever it's thrown it.

And we see that pretty consistently around the world. If you're a European company, you've got very low growth in Europe. They're focused on the U.S. and on Asia for growth. in the states of roads are leading here. So companies are getting a lot of growth from the multiple innovations that are occurring in the states and the continued resiliency of the U.S. consumer and China is driving a lot of its strength from the export intensity and Chinese companies growing rapidly abroad. And finally, the AI-driven electronics up cycle is a genuine tailwind for many parts of Asia. So there's a lot of different dynamics here that are really benefiting sort of unique client base that Citi serves and coming through in their growth as well as in their balance sheet strength.

And just tying into that, Jane, Obviously, many of us on the call understand the environment in the U.S. and the supportive regulatory environment when it comes to M&A and this administration seems to be supportive of M&A. Do you see that in other parts of the world, governments being as supportive of facilitating business growth and allowing consolidation?

In a word, no. Europe is almost the opposite. They're not allowing the emergence of emerging market champions. You're seeing much more national consolidation at best in Europe, which is a shame. We need Europe to be strong these days. And in Asia, you're seeing some, but the U.S. is unique and the American entrepreneurs innovation, the breadth and depth of the funding markets here and the investor base as well as how much American companies are on the front foot in AI and transformation, and that is also driving some of the boldness we see. It's a good environment.

Your next question will come from Matt O'Connor with Deutsche Bank.

You guys have successfully exited about half of Banamex and I think you said further exit to be after this year. Just wondering what the latest thoughts are on the timing and why not maybe sooner or just given the positive macro backdrop and successful exit of half?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Matt. We don't expect any additional sales in 2026, and that's intentional. It gives us a new investor group. The runway to drive value creation. And we're already seeing some of that performance kicked in Gonzalo alluded it to it in legacy franchise. Mexico has been improving in its performance. We expect to deconsolidate our ownership in early '27 followed by an IPO as and when market conditions allow and further sell-downs.

Okay. And just remind us in terms of how much capital might still be freed up? Obviously, it's a little bit dependent on the valuation you also have capital against the business. So maybe just give us a rough estimate on kind of current valuation, how much capital will be freed up to offset the earnings give up.

Yes. And just before we get there, I do remind you, when we do deconsolidate, we'll take a big CTA hit, that is capital neutral. So I don't -- I think that very much bears repeating for the beginning of '27. But Gonzalo, over to you.

Yes. Thank you. Now the short answer on the capital piece is around $5 billion, and the RWA tied up there is about almost $40 billion, a little bit over $40 billion of RWA.

Our next question will come from Saul Martinez with HSBC.

Just one question. But I wanted to hover on the investment theme as it relates to the cards business. You've invested there quite a bit. You rolled out the Strata card. You bought the Barclays portfolio. And -- but when I look at your business versus your best-in-class peers, Capital One, Amex, they're spending, I think, around $6 billion in marketing, Chase in sort of that mid-single-digit billion in marketing. And I know there's some -- probably some differences in terms of reporting and accounting classification. But is it an acknowledgment that maybe you need to be more aggressive on promotions, marketing campaigns, benefits? And just how should we think about the magnitude of the incremental investment in the second half that you talked about, Gonzalo. You mentioned expenses exceeding revenues, but that was already the case in this quarter, I think. So just -- is there any way to sort of think about the size of the headwind going forward or the size of the investment going forward.

Yes. Let me kick that one off. Yes, in a short word that we are going to be increasing our marketing spend. And that's scenario Pam laid out at Investor Day. We're making investments across supply wheels, so it is investing in our products. marketing for customer acquisitions. It's also in our partnerships. It's in our lifestyle platform. It's also importantly in AI to drive scale economics as well. And all of this will translate into measurable growth but you can expect us to be increasing marketing spend to drive that customer acquisition for the long term. These things don't pay off quickly. And I also want to clarify the positive -- when you talked about the operating leverage, that's only in cards. It's not for the rest of the businesses.

So I don't think I have much to add. I think Jane was very clear. We're not, at this point, we're not providing guidance specifically on the level of investment in each of the businesses including cards. But as you know, and Jane just mentioned, this is a business that is built over several years. It is what you highlight in terms of competitors really spending a lot. It's a highly competitive space because, obviously, it's a space that allows you to access good returns. We are pleased to be #3 or #4 player depending on what metric you look at on an outstanding basis, we're #3. And so our focus, as we spoke about at Investor Day is to really drive that growth and make share gains over the near and medium term. And so we're focused on that. You can see -- you can see us playing a combination of the portfolio acquisition with Barclays and American Airlines. But also, even if you take that out, you're going to see us -- you can see us -- and you alluded to the Strata portion of that, and there's a lot more behind that, as James just alluded to on the loyalty front and so on. So we're focused on high returning business and we know it will take some time.

Your next question will come from Chris McGratty with KBW.

Just on the Wealth business on Slide 11. The improvement in the pretax margins year-on-year is notable as is the NNA growth. Maybe a comment or 2 on what's changing. I know you're investing here heavily. Any shares on recent wins would be great.

Yes. Look, I think it's not a lot of difference from what Andy laid out at the Investor Day. They're doing a very good job steadily translating growth into returns. So with revenues up 13% year-on-year. That's more like 16% normalized with those one-timers. You're then seeing this translating into the higher returns. We've got a clear path to the 15% to 20%. And we've got a number of different drivers beneath that, be it the integration of the retail bank with wealth, helping us drive more of the customer conversion from deposits to also having wealth activity as well as what we're seeing from capturing wealth creation globally from our global network and the relationships we've got. So it's kind of firing on all cylinders as we steadily march to improving the returns and margin of the business.

Your next question will come from Khun Panga with China Securities.

This is [indiscernible] with China Securities. I have a follow-up on the services business for the very strong GTS net interest income growth. I believe besides the deposit volume growth, there must be some tailwinds from the higher for longer rate environment, right? So you look forward if there is no -- it is not higher for longer for the rates. How can we forecast the mix of the TTS revenue growth in the future? And also, can we have more detailed breakdowns geographically of the performance of the services business beyond the U.S. ex U.S. scope because best in China, I can see the very strong demand directly and personally for years. But this market are also very competitive, a lot of competitors here. So it will be super helpful if you can have some color on how it keeps growing your market share here.

Yes. Look, we're not going to give a breakdown geographically for the business, but it's very say that this is clearly with the growth you're seeing in a business that's firing not only on all cylinders but also in all geographies. And what we -- if you look at the institutional market share gain, we're up 120 basis points year-over-year. I'd also point to client wins. Client wins are up 36% year-over-year.

We've been focusing on increasing share with asset managers. That is up 50% and we've been increasing our share with fintechs. We've had growth of 20% there. And a lot of the growth beyond the movements in rates has come from the innovation that we've been making in the product suite. And our clients choose Citi because we lead with innovation. And as we lean into disruption, AI, blockchain, digital commerce, they are all opportunities for us to lead. They're not threats to us. And so AI is opening up many new vectors of growth and also competitive edge. So in terms of -- as you're thinking about this business going forward, I think you can be feeling a lot of confidence about our continued momentum in fees, our continued momentum in volumes and then the rates curve will be what the rates curve is.

Our next question will be a follow-up from Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo.

Let me try again on the investment question. And the real question is, is this accelerated second half investment spend for defense? Or is it for offense. And the bigger context is, look, you spent the entire decade on restructuring. You're almost done except for reg data with modernization and part of Mexico out of the 14 country exit and org simplification is done.

You did all this restructuring, and it sounds like, is this like another sort of restructuring? Are you repairing some lost market share? Are you doing more with legacy systems? Is it defense? Or is this offense where you're spending more for AI and stablecoin and trying to gain even more share in payments or something. But if you can give some context, this is the debate of the day.

It is 100% on the offense. I was really clear in my opening remarks. This is a firm on the front foot. We laid out at Investor Day a very clear path for us to drive our returns further forward in each business. We have done so in the first half and some. We've laid out a clear path of what are the investments and detailed them as to what it is we're going to be investing behind to continue to drive the growth for the near term and the medium term. I will reiterate again. Those are all organic. I'm excited about what lies ahead for this firm. This is a firm that is much easier to manage. It is much easier to run. Mike, I can't tell you that it's impossible that we will exceed the 11%. We're just not going to box ourselves into that that we see opportunity to take actions on the events, which are accretive to shareholders and support our path to our medium-term targets. That is an easy decision for us. And this is a firm that is growing nicely, as you can see. We're proud of what we're doing, and we are just going to keep going. The momentum is behind us, but we're going to take advantage of opportunities to bring investments forward and not just manage to a short-term numbers, we're playing the long game here.

For our final question, we'll return to Gerard Cassidy with RBC.

Gonzalo, just a real technical question on the second half incremental investment expense, can you ballpark what might be tied to severance expenses in that number? Is it half, 1/3, 1/4?

Thanks, Gerard. No, we're not giving guidance on the severance for the second half. What I can tell you is I'm just going back to the first principles, right? Sharp focus on returns, right, as you heard from Jane, not only in the Waypoint but also in the near term and medium term. Secondly, as I mentioned last quarter, very tight discipline on expenses on a tactical basis. So you can expect us to be -- continue to be very disciplined on expense management. And the third piece is leaning into the structural efficiencies, right? And so as I mentioned a little bit earlier, only if we see opportunities for that acceleration when we look at those 100-plus processes that we're looking to further automate on an end-to-end basis, if we see opportunities for that, we may lean into that. But at this point, we're not providing guidance on that.

There are no further questions. I will turn the call over to Jenn Landis for closing remarks.

Thank you. And before we conclude, I would like to thank Jane, Mark, Gonzalo, Ed and the entire Investor Relations team, especially Tom Rogers for their trust partnership and support during my time leading Investor Relations. It has been a truly a privilege to represent Citi and work with such a dedicated teams across the firm. And I thoroughly enjoyed the insightful conversations with our investors and analysts over the past 5 years.

I'm delighted to welcome Margo as she takes on her new role, and I know the team will benefit greatly from her leadership and perspective. Thank you again for your partnership and support. And I'm sure you'll have lots of questions, so we look forward to talking to you this afternoon. Thank you.

This concludes the Citi First (sic) [ Second ] Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. You may now disconnect.

Okay. We have Citigroup up next, and we're delighted to have with us today Gonzalo Luchetti, CFO of Citigroup. Gonzalo, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

Gonzalo now you've been in the CFO role for 3 months. You've had one earnings cycle and one Investor Day. So it's been incredibly busy for you. Can you talk about what have your priorities been? And what are you most focused on right now?

Well, the next month is very intense, even more intense than preparing for Investor Day and for my first earnings because the World Cup is coming up and the Knicks are playing. So I'm on very short sleep today for no real good reason because of last night's results, but that drives a lot of anxiety.

But no, if I had to summarize it, thank you, Manan, Great to be here. It would be value creation, right, is the key focus. And that, to me, emanates from 3 aspects. One is driving durability. Two is accountability. And the third piece is execution. So when I think of durability, very focused on ensuring that we're not taking any short-term gain for long-term disappointment. So we look at the -- being a source of resilience. That's why we're so focused on the strength of our balance sheet, the strength of liquidity. We spoke about this at Investor Day, the asset quality, right, our credit risk appetite, our strength in risk and controls and all those pieces because that's the foundation where you build kind of the strong performance over time and not just in one quarter or another.

Accountability, we've spoken a lot about the shift in our culture and how we're a different firm and how we hold ourselves accountable to results, not to words, not to actions. And so with Jane, with the leadership team, that's really our mantra and that level of accountability and rigorous kind of follow through, follow-up, having the telemetry and all of that in place, I think, is super important. The third piece is execution, really being relentless, having the energy, having the urgency, being client-centric and client-focused, that key piece so that we can drive performance over time. So those are kind of those 3 things we focused on.

And those priorities certainly came out at Investor Day as well. And another thing you spoke about at Investor Day, it's been, I guess, less than a month. But one of the things you spoke about was the uniqueness of Citi's global footprint. So I guess 2-part question. As you sit here today, what's your current view on the macroeconomic outlook and -- for U.S. and globally? And I guess, what does that mean from a credit perspective, both on the consumer side and the commercial side? So a broader question here, but I just want to get your sense of the lay of the land.

So maybe let me start going around the world a little bit, and then we'll come back to the U.S. and how we see kind of the U.S. consumer and corporates as well. When you look at the macro from a global lens, I think the thematic of the tension point between what's going to be the velocity of growth in light of the events in the Middle East and kind of the long-term effects of that on whether it's infrastructure damage and/or prices for some of the commodities impacted and versus the elements of inflationary pressure, I think those you see basically across most markets around the world. different impacts, of course. So you see in some emerging markets, which are still showing resilience. Some central banks have already taken hawkish stances and increased rates in some cases or in many cases, in order to care for kind of the import equation with oil prices and also to protect their currency as well as they saw some flight. When you look at places like Europe, we expect some degree of impact on growth, but still positive growth, which I think is relatively good news.

When you think about China, for example, the meeting between -- the presidential meeting between the U.S. and China, if anything, I think, eliminated some of the negative tail risks, right, about the relationship and where things could go. So I think that on a basis is positive. And then the U.S., not that dissimilar from what we've seen in the global economy over the last several years. The U.S. has shown a good level of resilience. And so you have some supporting elements like the build-out on AI, tax cuts and the regulation, the strength of the balance sheets in the corporate side. And finally and not least of it, the strength of the U.S. consumer, right? U.S. consumers have shown resilience, have shown fiscal equilibrium. We've seen on the spend side, for example, even if you take out the portion of the demand volumes that are reflected from gas, if you take that out, we're still seeing mid-single digits in sync with what we were seeing before.

So -- and that's relatively stable and constructive. We've also seen in terms of the mix of spend, categories like travel and dining, entertainment, which are more discretionary in nature, where people usually will go there first to tighten the belt. They continue to perform relatively well. So there's a little bit of -- and it's not that we haven't seen portions of this in the last 3 or 4 years where there was a bifurcation between what people say in a survey, right, as far as sentiment and how they act with their wallet. We're seeing a little bit of that bifurcation on the U.S. consumer side, but the spend continues to be there. And then on the other side, the credit is well within expectations, right? So you're seeing delinquencies and net credit losses down year-on-year following the usual seasonal patterns between Q1 and Q2, but the signs are relatively benign there. And then on the corporate side, of course, we do business with global multinational corporations. Those tend to have the strongest of balance sheets and are able to navigate a range of different environments and outcomes.

If you look at our clients that are more Middle East- centric or more exposed to the Middle East, the focus right now is maybe more on operational resilience, right, and security. But by and large, I think there's a lot of kind of strategic levels of high activity.

Got it. Okay. So maybe help us tie that through with what you're seeing so far in the second quarter. You've been -- what have you been seeing in terms of overall investment banking and markets? And if you have any other updates for the quarter?

Yes. No. And I think probably in part a continuation of what we saw in Q1 as it relates to the good and intense level of customer engagement, right, and customer appetite, I would say. If we -- if I go through, for example, investment banking in terms of fees, what we're seeing for the quarter is something along the lines of a mid-teens level of year-on-year growth, and that is anchored on equity activity, right, where you're seeing IPOs picked up between Q1 and Q2 and what you're seeing in follow-on activities. In DCM, we're seeing investment-grade debt also highly active, a bit more selective on the high-grade side -- I'm sorry, on the high-yield side. And then on the -- also selectivity as it relates to some of the sponsor activity as well. And so overall, fairly constructive in total as a wallet. In terms of markets of our markets franchise, we're seeing in terms of revenue growth, high single digits to low double-digit revenue growth for the quarter.

Some of the trends that we saw in Q1 -- I'm sorry, as a reminder, the -- remember that Q2 last year had the element of volatility into equities that the tariffs brought along. So it wasn't the lowest of quarters, let's just say, right? But even with that, we're seeing strength in equities, in prime, in derivatives, in line with our strategy to continue to drive prime. On the fixed income side, continuation of strength in currencies, in commodities. And spreads, this is in sync with our strategy of driving financing and securitization. We're seeing good volumes in the second quarter as well. And those are a more stable source of revenue momentum across the franchise. And then the last piece I'll mention for Q2 is as it relates to cost of credit, we're expecting to be more or less in the range that we were in Q1.

And that links up with our reserves, which are probably more volume driven in the quarter, given the client activity that we're seeing. And then on the NCL front, I just mentioned, I think generally well within our expectations, seasonal patterns between Q1, Q2, down delinquencies and losses for -- on a year-on-year basis. So overall, constructive.

All right. Perfect. So investment banking, up mid-teens. markets up high single to low double digits off of a strong base in the second quarter of last year and cost of credit in line with 1Q?

Yes, recognizing there's a few weeks to go. I should say this as you have lawyers show up here before I open my mouth. But of course, there's a few weeks to go and some of these things could change. And depending on timing, even on investment banking fees, there could be a bit more opportunity than that. But yes, that's what we're seeing today. Perfect.

That's great. Okay. So at Investor Day, you focused a lot on 2027 and beyond. So I did want to spend some time on 2026 as well. You've given a target range for net interest income ex markets of up 5% to 6% this year. And can you help us think through the puts and takes of that growth, particularly as we think about loan growth and deposit growth?

Yes. So no, thank you. And it's obviously a very pressing question. And let me start by mentioning a couple of things. First, as I said at Investor Day, we are confident in that 5% to 6% that we will be able to deliver that guidance. If you look at what we've done recently in Q1, that NII ex markets number was about 7% year-on-year growth. Last year was about 6%. We guided for the year mid-single-digit growth of the underlying drivers, deposit and loan growth. We are comfortable with that guidance.

And one key takeaway on NII ex Markets is that the majority of the outcome for us for the guidance of this year is really anchored of client-driven engagement and client-driven volumes. So when you look at deposits for a minute, what we're seeing in services, what we're seeing in our wealth business, how we're driving -- how Andy is driving both the retail bank and affluent customer volumes, which are high liquidity value for the firm and also what he's driving on the private bank as he has been rewiring that for the last couple of years. I think that momentum in the mid-single-digit range feels good. And then on the loan side, ex markets, we're seeing good momentum as it relates to wealth in the securities back lending in mortgages as well as on the U.S. cards front as well.

Reminder also that in the second quarter, we acquired the American Airlines portion that was looked after by Barclays. And so that's coming in as well. But overall, in line with the spend that we spoke about as well.

Got it. And as you think about that mid-single-digit deposit growth, we've been hearing from some banks saying that competition is picking up. Anything that you're seeing on either the corporate side or the consumer deposit pricing side that speaks to increasing competition?

Yes. Of course, we'll have to look and see a little bit, especially because the story on rates, given the events in the Middle East may be shifting on us, right? The curve is right now pricing an increase towards the end of the year. A few months ago, that was a very different picture. And so that pivot may impact -- and that's why we want to be thoughtful about the guidance on the 5% to 6% because even though you may say, hey, isn't higher for longer, a bit better for banks, the answer is generally yes to that, but you also have to see the impact that it creates on the volumes and on the pricing. So far, the pricing and the betas are holding stable.

I think there's a lot of what we get to see, especially as it relates to services, which is about 2/3 of our funding sources. There's a lot of operational deposits anchored into the fact that we are a global bank in 90 countries and the customers -- our clients need us every day to make payroll and to really drive their commercial volumes around the world. And so we're highly embedded, and therefore, the price sensitivity is not the same as you see in other pockets.

Got it. And then maybe let's flip to noninterest revenues ex markets. You've talked about your expectations for growth. Can you walk us through the drivers of fee revenues across the businesses for this year? And I guess, what is the -- what should we be considering as we think about that piece of the revenue?

Yes, thank you for the question. I think the -- I'm going to sound like a broken record, client-driven growth momentum. That's what we're focused on, right? Commercial intensity and also not only being in high engagement mode with clients, but also making sure that the investments that we have been making are paying off. And we're seeing that. So if you look at Q1 and the drivers of the NIR ex markets, you had 15% revenue growth in services, you had 14% investment banking fees growth. And you had -- although you had a 5% on wealth, we were also lapping the fact that we sold our trust business a year ago.

So if you look through investment revenue -- investment fees, those were at also double digit at 11%. So we feel good about the momentum that we saw in Q1 and the continuation thereof and our expectations through the year, both as a combination of upping the level of accountability and engagement across our teams, but also the investments that we have been making across those franchises. So those 3 are going to be the primary drivers.

Okay. Perfect. And I guess the last part to round out that 2026 discussion is on the efficiency ratio. You've spoken about an efficiency ratio of around 60% for the year. Are you -- a, are you still on track for that? And b, can you run through some of the drivers for that expense base this year?

Thank you. Thank you. So I think a couple of things. And if I step back, the #1 commitment is our return expectation of 10% to 11% ROTCE. Sacrosanct, very confident that we will be able to deliver that this year. Now operating efficiency was one of the components of that, right? So we guided around 60%, to your point. And yes, we are confident that we will be able to deliver within that range. And what's important to us, if you look at operating efficiency and the progress we've been making, we had 2 years in a row where we've improved our operating efficiency down to 63%. We expect to repeat this year with another 300 basis points of improvement or thereabouts at the -- around 60%.

The key drivers of that obviously emanate from continued momentum on the client franchise and really seeing that revenue growth, part of which is being driven by the investments we've made. Secondly, continuing to make progress on our structural efficiency sources, which are self-funding some of those investments going forward as well. So 3 pieces there. stranded costs, which were about $1.3 billion last year. You already can see in Q1, they were about $200 million. So even if you annualize that, you can see them coming down, and we expect to do for that to continue. transformation costs. Last year, they peaked at $3.3 billion. Now I've spoken in the past about how roughly half of those are sitting in corporate other and are more temporary in nature. They were there to build the house, right? The other half are structural in nature and are there for us to stay with us as part of our fabric. And so the temporary ones, as we are reaching completion, and we spoke about in the past recently, how 90% of our programs are at or near completion.

As we complete programs, we don't need to wait for exiting the consent order in order to be able to release some of those costs. So you're seeing that and the early innings of that, that will play out through the near term. And the third piece is structural efficiencies, right? Those that come from automation, technology automation and deploying AI. We have more than 100 of our kind of largest scale and most manual processes. Our COO, Anand and Tim Ryan, they meet our tech head, they meet every single week with our work streams. And so we have a lot of rigor behind making sure that we -- those 3 sources of funding for self-funding our investments for the future are there and clicking. And then the last piece, sorry, is RWA and capital optimization, right, very focused on driving DTA and making sure that within the businesses, we're very dynamic and thoughtful in how we allocate capital on a quarterly and daily basis.

Great. So with all of that, still on track for that around 60% number and room for improvement. As we think about the AI-related spend that you just spoke about, can you talk about some early tangible benefits you're seeing on the AI side?

Sure. So the -- maybe let me talk about the approach and the focus on pockets of value that we're seeing to make it tangible. First on the approach we take a dual approach. The dual approach is top down and bottom up. Top down because there are some areas where you can see really scale benefit, and that requires the prioritization, the senior management focus and the high urgency and intensity to monetize it, to size it to fund it, right, because you may need technology development and really drive that. That's linked to what I was just talking about, about the structural efficiency sources, those 100-plus processes that we are looking at end-to-end, and I'll come back to that in a second.

The second piece is bottom up. We also want to unleash individual ingenuity, right? And so how do we make available our tools to all of our team members, how do we enable them to grow and develop and upgrade themselves and also in their very specific to some -- not every role is homogeneous, right, at the firm. You may have call centers, you may have KYC agents. Those jobs are more homogeneous. There are others that are not. How do you bring innovation and efficiency and that utility value to everyone at the firm is kind of the second piece of top down and bottom up. And then when we look at the value, we look at really 4 different buckets, right? One is enabling growth.

So tangible there, how we're looking at wholesale credit, being able to make faster decisions that still pass our credit risk appetite. What we've been doing with AI machine learning on the credit card space, where we've seen improvements of 100 basis points on approval rates. All of those things are tangible things that I can see as far as driving and enabling growth. Then you have a vector of efficiency. Obviously, that, I'm sure everybody is on the same boat there. But if you look at customer service, for example, we've been at it for a couple of years now, just on GenAI alone, we've seen improvements of cutting down the call time by 60 seconds, right? That's a big number, not only in sales, but just think of the customer experience of having to be on the phone for so long and from a risk management perspective as well and also from an efficiency standpoint. And we're seeing that even on the corporate side in services, right? The containment rate of our City Direct agents is up about 50%. All of that, again, is better service and more efficient. So you have almost like a triple win, right? It's risk, efficiency and customer experience. So that's the second vector.

The third vector is defense. And so we're seeing a lot of application, not only in cyber, which has been in the press, but also in fraud, in AML, in all of those areas of defensive nature that help us protect the bank. And the last piece is our people, not in that order, but the last piece is making sure that we are helping our team members innovate for the benefit of the firm, but also for self-benefit, right, and making sure that everybody, myself included, right, that we upgrade ourselves, so we don't become the dinosaurs tomorrow.

I hear you. And I think the other piece of what you spoke about at Investor Day was the investment spend that you're making in the business. I think you spoke about $5 billion of investment spend. A lot of it is self-funded. So can you talk about where you're investing and maybe talk about the timing of some of those investments?

Yes. No, thank you. And so maybe I'll start maybe with principle one, which is we want to be very disciplined about this. So we recognize the importance that these investments are going to anchor our path to our near-term and medium-term returns. And at the same time, it's important that we keep the discipline in how we're going to fund these investments. And so we've spoken about how we're self-funding them. I talked a little bit earlier about the levers, so I'm not going to repeat them again. Then when you look at the areas of focus, -- the other -- the second principle in addition to the discipline and the self-funding is that these are not spread the peanut butter investments. These are very focused investments that are 100% aligned with our strategy.

So even if I go one by one, you're going to see a very direct connect, and that's how we hold ourselves accountable with our business heads and our teams into making sure that, that linkage is direct. So if you think about markets, for example, Andy spent most of his -- a good portion of his presentation talking about how we want to scale our equities business. So some of the technology platform and the talent investments that Andy is making that we're enable are linked to that piece in equities as well as continue to drive and maintain our leadership in fixed income.

If you think about investment banking, Viz was talking about how we're investing in talent in certain sectors, right? We're investing in North America. We're investing in technology, in health care, in sponsors, which is an area that we weren't where we wanted to be, and we've been driving that. And DC, we talked about technology. We saw Sky and how we were deploying our AI agents. But at the same time, the investment in talent, right, in bankers and relationship managers and the like and so -- as well as the product capabilities. If you look at our cards business, right, very good return in business, and we want to drive the growth.

So investing in marketing, right, in card acquisitions as well as digital experiences and engagement and driving loyalty for -- so that we're top of wallet card. And then when you look at services, of course, right, our crown jewel, you want to make sure that we are constantly innovating on the platform because that is not only a defensive move, but also an offensive move, right? As you bring 24/7 multi-country cross-border payment availability, we have to invest in the platform and really make sure that gives us not only the durability of those great returns that we get from the services franchise, but also enables consistent growth.

So as you think about the timing of those investments, are they -- I guess, how many years are they spread out over -- and how are you funding them?

So the funding is self-funded through stranded costs coming down, right? What we said is during the near term, the near term, as a reminder, includes 2027, 2028. So these investments play out throughout '26, '27, '28. And how we think about the funding is when you look at stranded costs, for example, right, $1.3 billion a year ago, we expect by the end of the near term that we're going to be down to zero. If you look at our transformation costs, and I said half of them are the ones that are temporary in nature, so half of $3.3 billion.

Again, we expect those by the end of our near-term period to be down to 0 as well. And then in terms of the structural efficiencies across those 100 processes and those apply to functions and operational areas, we're also expecting to see progress. So those are the sources that are funding, right, our ability to do those investments. That's why it's important as we thought about operating efficiency targets that returns is really #1, and that's really the true north. And we want to give ourselves in any given year, the flexibility of being able to do the -- not only the instant gratification, but also anchor the returns for the longer range.

So just on the transformation spend, the portion of it, which is in the Corporate and Other segment versus a portion of it, which is in the different businesses, I guess, how is that different? I know that the corporate and other is more temporary in nature, but how are the 2 spends different?

Yes. So corporate other is -- those are more temporary. It was the ones that we needed to build the house. On the house is built, you don't need those costs anymore. Those are starting to come down already as we reach completion of the programs. The second type, the ones that are more structural in nature, those are embedded across our businesses and our functions. And so those will be equally -- first of all, they're there to stay, but they're going to be also subject to the 100 processes that I was talking on that other bucket, right, on the structural [indiscernible]. So we're still going to go and try to automate via AI and technology, those as well, right?

Got it. All right. Perfect. So well, you also mentioned in terms of the ROTCE for the year, your guide is 10% to 11% ROTCE for 2026. In 1Q, you already did a 13% ROTCE. I mean, obviously, there is some seasonality there.

Thank you. You answering my question...

So I'll say that. But 13% in 1Q is still strong. I guess, what would -- if I were to push you a little bit, what would prevent you from being at the top end of that 10% to 11% ROTE?

Yes. No, thank you. Good question. And as we said in our first earnings call in our Q1 call, yes, please let's not do that times 4 because there is seasonality into the business. But what I would say is, well, first of all, we're confident in the 10% to 11%, number one. Number two, because we're confident because we're seeing the client momentum and the client intensity. We intend to keep, and we have had so far very good expense discipline as well as what we're seeing on the capital and RWA management, how thoughtful the team is and how we approach that. So those 3 things give me the confidence.

In terms of what would determine where we are exactly on the range, I think a couple of factors. Number one, the environment, and we know some of the lines can swing relatively quickly. So if we continue to see constructive volumes and levels of client activity, obviously, you can be on one side of the range, but also the flexibility of deploying some of the investments that we were talking about before, right? And how do we gear those up and down to make sure that we are -- we have higher certainty of the path thereafter.

Yes. Got it. All right. Perfect. Maybe one point of clarification from the Investor Day. You've spoken about the DTA utilization also being an important part of how you manage capital in the near term. And I think you've spoken about $800 million or so of DTA utilization for 2026 -- and then I know you haven't given a specific number, but if I eyeball the Investor Day deck, it's about half of the $14 billion or so in DTA that you intend to utilize over the next 3 years. Can you go through some of the drivers behind that and what drives the acceleration versus the $800 million this year?

Yes. No, thank you. And I think it's a very good area, as exciting as it is for all of us to talk about DTA over here. I'm sure if we did a show of hands for who enjoys DTA profusely, I'm not sure if maybe you and I only, right? You might be surprised. Maybe it's the Citi team, I think, potentially. But a couple of things. I think, number one, recognition that this is a show-me part of our story, right? Because we haven't been burning down DTA in the last few years. And the reason is 90% of it is driven by U.S. profitability. Now what gives me confidence is last year, we had $4 billion of profitability in the U.S. This -- you can see this in our disclosures. And when you think about the strategic and the forward momentum that we have in terms of delivering performance, it's going to be almost impossible to do well in all the other commitments and not be able to produce higher degrees of U.S. profitability that will anchor the DTA consumption.

So that gives us the confidence to -- even though we hadn't been burning for the last couple of years to say this first year of that -- of this new period, we're going to do $800 million is the guidance. But then as you look forward to me, the answer is relatively straightforward is the performance of our strategy and the delivery of everything else that we said will naturally yield that burn down that we spoke about. So you heard from some of the businesses, of course, U.S. cards, good returning business and driving growth. We need to deliver the growth. That's 100% U.S.-based profit. You look at wealth, Wealth, we know we have work to do in terms of returns. But just look at the trajectory from -- and this business over the last couple of years, right? Even Q1 was 11% revenue growth, 1% expense growth.

Last year, I think it was 13.3% or 14.3%. And so as long as we're keeping and we have good confidence in that, that very -- those big jaws that we're seeing, we're going to see that improvement. A lot of it plays out in the U.S. as well. You heard from services, where we have very good momentum in deposits. Part of it is in North America. Some new mandates we're signing with some of the largest asset management companies in securities services anchors that. Biz talked a lot about how the investments in North America as far as talent is concerned and some of the pulls there. And markets also equities and fixed income, a lot of that activity and the growth that we're looking at there in equities, a lot of this happens in the U.S. So when you look at all of that, we're making investments in our home strategy, and that will anchor the 90% of the DTA is really linked to U.S. profitability.

Got it. So as U.S. profitability improves, that DTA utilization improves nicely. Okay. Perfect. So let's talk about some of the Investor Day targets and the time lines there. There's 2 phases that you laid out at Investor Day, 11% to 13% ROTCE in the near term and then 14% to 15% in the medium term. Can you remind us what are the main drivers of getting to the near term and then getting to the medium term?

Yes. No, thank you. So in the near term, we said 11% to 13%, and we said that the second year, so 2028, we expect to be towards the higher end of that range just because we recognize it's a little bit wide. 3 main drivers. The number one, continuing the client momentum. And that anchored not only in the commercial intensity across our 5 franchises, but also the level of self-funded investments that we're deploying across that piece, right? And so that to me is a key -- one of the key 3 factors. The second one is structural efficiencies, right? And we've spoken about stranded costs during the whole period of near term, making solid progress there, transformation costs that are temporary in nature coming down and then driving those structural efficiencies through automation and digitization. And so those are kind of 3 pieces.

The third piece is capital productivity. And so burning down the DTA and continuing to make progress on our strategy. Now as a reminder, we did not bake in any benefit from neither the NPR as it relates to Basel III, G-SIB or stress capital buffer nor any improvements in the stress capital buffer over -- in the course of time with our PPNR growing as we continue to execute our strategy. We have not baked that in, but those are the 3 levers. And then when you think and jump into the medium term, which is 2029 to 2031, that's a different bank as well because you're not going to have stranded costs, right? We don't have legacy franchises at that point. We don't have any of the temporary transformation costs. So it really is kind of the pure version of the 5 core businesses and the firm at that point, driving the growth and efficiency.

And then you have the operating efficiencies as well that you've built on with the investment plan. So maybe a follow-up on that. As you mentioned, the one area of focus from investors has been the underlying capital assumptions behind the ROTCE targets. And clearly, we're going to get some benefits from Basel end game, G-SIB surcharge, stress capital buffer should also be a positive. Are there -- is there any additional color you can give us there on the capital side?

So what I'd say is a couple of things. First, maybe the baseline reminder, right, because I may be the city nerd in the room, not everybody is required to learn all these things, right, and remember them. Our current target is 12.6% because it's 11.6% plus our 100 basis points management buffer. What we talked about at Investor Day is our assumption is that, that number becomes 13.1% under current rules because we're drifting on the G-SIB curve on the basis of enabling our businesses with clients. And that happens starting in 2028. So our assumption is 12.6% now and into '28, beginning of 2028, 13.1%. That's what we assumed for all the returns that we've spoken about at Investor Day. Now at the same time, what has happened -- what we expect to happen is we talked about how Basel III and G-SIB, we expect to see a moderate benefit for us in that equation, subject to obviously the feedback that is being provided to regulators and whether they're going to adjust anything.

But in terms of what they have published so far, you have the puts and takes of the retail and corporate plus the G-SIB coefficient being a positive and some of it moderated by FRTB, CVA operational risk and some of those components as well. But -- and then obviously, a question mark as to -- as we gain more transparency into the models from the Fed and also the adjustment of those models, what we can expect in terms of SCB is still unknown. And then the other piece that is obviously more controlled by us and that we haven't included baked is the fact that as our strategy and we continue to focus on performance and drive better returns, our PPNR will continue to improve, and that will give us a bigger softener that hopefully, over time, will also have impact on SCV. So you have a couple of levers there that we are expecting to drive improvement. We have seen it in the last couple of years. That last event, right, the last element of PPNR, we used to be at 4.2% stress capital buffer. Now we're at 3.6%. And so yes, we have not baked those in. Of course, internally, we have a sense for what that could look like. But yes, I think we -- hopefully, by the end of the year, we have more clarity of where that leads.

Yes. We might even get a little bit more clarity as we get to the end of this month and we get the stress test results as well. Okay. Gonzalo, you've kept us on time. We've covered a lot of stuff in the session. Maybe summarize this for us in terms of the key points you would like investors to take away from both this session and maybe even Investor Day.

I would say, hopefully, you can tell by a lot of the other pieces as opposed to me having to spell it out, but I think we are a very different city. We spent the better part of the last several years fixing ourselves and really remediating what was holding us back. And now we're really focused on client-driven growth on operational performance driving. And so when I talk about accountability, when I talk about the relentless execution mindset, that's really what's going to end up driving the results. It's really the boring, but equally as exciting if you can get there of every single day, looking at how am I engaging with clients, how am I driving efficiency, how am I using every unit of capital to make sure that we drive those returns and the long-term value creation that is the true north.

Very clear. Gonzalo, thanks so much for your time.

Thank you very much.

Actual results may differ materially from these statements due to various factors, including those contained in the Investor Day materials posted on our website and in Citi's 2025 10-K and other SEC filings. Please refer to the footnotes in the presentation posted on Citi's Investor Relations website for definitions and other explanatory information. Thank you. Please welcome Head of Investor Relations Jenn Landis.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here. I'm Jenn Landis, Head of Investor Relations, and on behalf of the entire leadership team, it's my pleasure to welcome you to our 2026 full firm Investor Day. Events like today are so important to us. not just as an opportunity to present the next 2 phases of Citi, but as a continuation of the ongoing conversations we have had over the past several years. Those conversations have shaped how we structured today. And I want you to know that your questions and perspectives have been heard and will be addressed. Over the past few years, we've been very focused on raising the bar in how we engage with you. bringing greater transparency, more consistency and a more analytical framework around how we communicate our performance and our progress. And that is what we will continue to do for the next 2 phases.

We know you want a clear understanding of the trajectory to higher returns for both the near term and the medium term and to have a better understanding of what the firm could achieve organically. So today is designed to give you a complete and transparent picture of what you could expect from us and what we will deliver to you. Now let me walk you through the day. So Jane will open up by grounding you in on our strategy and transformation, the progress that we've made against our commitments, what is left to do to get to the target state and how we will deliver higher sustainable returns going forward.

Following that, you will hear directly from our business leaders, who will take you deeper into the specific areas of the franchise that underpin our growth and our return targets. Ben Gonzalo, will walk you through the financial performance in greater detail, including the assumptions, the drivers and the milestones we expect you to hold us to, to get to our targets. And then we will close with a Q&A session, where the full leadership team will be available to answer your questions. Thank you again for your time and continued engagement. It means a great deal to the entire team. And with that, let's start the day.

[Presentation]

Please welcome to the stage, CEO, Jane Fraser.

Good morning, and welcome to Citi's 2026 Investor Day. I can tell you, we're all excited to have you here. When we presented to you in 2022, we laid out our ambition, deliver higher, more sustainable returns, run the bank with more rigor and discipline, reduced risk and execute at pace. We've delivered on those objectives, and we are on track to achieve our 2026 ROTCE target of 10% to 11%. And -- but that is not a destination. That is a way point. So from here, we will drive to new return targets. We've set a near-term target of 11% to 13%. We expect to be within that range in both years, and we intend to move towards the higher end of that range in 2028. Over the medium term, we see a clear path to 14% to 15% returns. And today, we will show you the path to how we will deliver that, where we will grow, where we will invest, how each business contributes and why our diversified model positions us to win amidst the new global dynamics.

By the end of the day, one thing will be very obvious. We have rebuilt the engine. It is stronger, it is more durable. And now we'll show you what it can deliver. Now from the start, this was about more than just fixing the old city. It was about building the bank the next decade demands. And that meant determining where Citi had genuine competitive advantages and where we didn't and acting with urgency on both. It also meant making substantial multiyear investments to address what has held us back for so long. First, we focus the firm where we have the right to win. We reshaped City around 5 core businesses, and we have largely completed the consumer exits with Poland and Banamex, very well advanced. Now that freed up management focus and gave us capital to reinvest and to return to shareholders. Second, we simplified how we run the bank, fewer layers, unambiguous accountability, faster decisions.

Third, we raised standards, and we added talent. We reset our leadership team. We realigned compensation to returns, and we built a culture with greater ownership, accountability and drive. Fourth, through the transformation, we modernized our infrastructure. We invested heavily in our systems, and we materially reduced our risk profile. And finally, we continue to prioritize investing in the businesses and the capabilities driving improved performance. And we did all of this at the same time. And that is no mean feat. You can see it in the results. The first quarter marked City's best quarterly revenue in a decade with growth in all 5 businesses. That built on last year when we delivered record revenue growth improve returns, positive operating leverage for the second consecutive year and $17.6 billion of capital returned to shareholders.

That's the engine. It's built to win. It's built to last. So the question now isn't whether the engine works, it's what it can do from here. So let's start with our 5 businesses and how they uniquely combine as a connected platform for our clients. Across each our ambition is clear: strengthen our competitive position deepen client relationships and drive durable growth and returns. We'll start with services. This is a business already delivering at its target range in the mid-20s, and we are confident that, that will hold through the cycle. We uniquely sit at the center of global financial flows, moving nearly $6 trillion every single day. Not only is our position nearly impossible to replicate. It's more valuable as flows become increasingly complex. And that's because our strength is helping clients navigate just that complexity. Our focus going forward, deepen our advantages, build on our scale.

And we will get there by continuing to invest in our platform. real-time liquidity, payments, custody and digital assets and by deepening relationships and expanding into new ones, particularly through the commercial bank, and in high-growth segments such as digital commerce and asset managers. This is a scaled durable business. So from here, it's about sustained growth will give you the full picture markets. Markets is a stable, high-quality earnings engine. We're already around an 11% return, and we see a clear path to 13% plus over the medium term. We have a leading fixed income franchise where our corporate client relationships and the linkages of services at our competitive edge, and we'll continue to see more growth from there. At the same time, we're focused on growing our equities franchise, particularly in prime, and we're already seeing momentum.

Equity markets revenue is up 40% year-on-year with prime balances now over $0.5 trillion. We've also exited areas where we lacked Advantage and we focused, we focused on the products and the clients that drive high quality, more sustainable returns. All told, markets has even further upside ahead. Andy Morton will take you through it Banking. Banking is where the depth of our client relationships all around the world translates into higher value revenue across the firm. And we are becoming more focused and more disciplined in how we do that. In Investment Banking, our ambition is to build a top-tier franchise, and we're investing in senior bankers to make that happen. Paramount, McCormick AQT EES, the year's biggest deals, we are at the center of them. Now underpinning that is our corporate bank, the world's best and it sits at the heart of long-standing corporate relationships.

And our corporate bank gives us a unique vantage point to both help our clients succeed and help us captured therefore wallet. Alongside that is our commercial bank and think of it as our client acquisition engine with a meaningful opportunity to scale in North America with sharper capital allocation and focus. Banking has a straightforward path to returns in the mid- to high teens, which will bring us in line with the best on the Street. This will tell us more. Wealth is 1 of our more significant growth opportunities. We're on track to reach target return levels of 20% plus in the medium term by continuing to grow fees and increase deposits. We are proud of the investment platform we've built and how it sets us apart.

It gives us an opportunity to grow faster than the market by capturing a very healthy share of the more than $5 trillion in investable assets that our clients hold outside city. Now this is our priority, and we are confident that we can capture it organically. We will steadily scale by continuing to invest in advisers data and technology, including AI to improve productivity and client outcomes. In the retail bank, will improve profitability and grow by investing in talent, branches and technology and by doing more with small businesses. Importantly, integrating the retail bank with Wealth has really strengthened our ability to manage the totality of our U.S. consumer deposit base of nearly $300 billion. And we'll run you through the plan in wealth in more detail, including how we will grow the business with higher fee income and deepen the funding base.

Cards is a core driver of returns in our North America franchise and it's operating near its target return range in the low 20s. From here, the focus is targeted growth, primarily in general purpose cards. That's both proprietary and co-brand where demand is highest, and our advantages are clearest. We're upping investment in marketing, product innovation and partnerships, including our expanded relationship with American Airlines. In private label, we're being selective, evolving partnerships into co-brand relationships where it makes sense and optimizing the others for returns. And across the business, we're improving performance and customer experience by using AI end-to-end from acquisition and underwriting through servicing and engagement. The result is a scaled business generating competitive returns in North America and playing a very important role in Citi's overall return profile.

And remember, it sits as part of our broader global leadership in payments. Pam will walk you through our growth plan. For each of our 5 businesses, the strategy is consistent with what we laid out at our last Investor Day. We will now advance that strategy by investing where we have a right to win and converting that into durable higher returns. But Citi is much more than just the sum of its parts. So let me switch gears to give you the enterprise level perspective on how we have remade this firm. We rebuilt our strategy around scaled interconnected businesses that deliver for institutions with cross-border needs. Our clients are the most prominent multinational companies operating on the world stage. And today, they face unprecedented challenges, global instability, supply chain shocks, volatile financial markets and technological disruption. You all know the less.

With our business model, Citi is uniquely positioned to both help our clients navigate these complexities and gain competitive edge. A client can have their global cash managed by services, their currency hedged by markets, a strategic acquisition advised on and financed by banking and the personal wealth of its executives managed by the private bank with their spending supported by cards. But this goes beyond the obvious synergies that exist amongst our businesses. because we have the model and the capabilities, and we've put in place the right org structure, discipline and data and incentives. So we deliver the full firm to our clients consistently.

In a world where cross-border complexity is the new normal, our integrated model means that our clients have a single, globally minded and resilient partner to help them succeed. Emphasis on the word resilient. We've been tested time and time again in the last several years, and we have consistently shown ourselves to be a very different city. Our bank in Ukraine has not missed 1 day since the war started 4 years ago in circumstances, most of us can barely begin to imagine. The same is true in Israel, in Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East at this very moment. We were a source of support in the U.S. regional banking crisis, and we help clients reconfigure supply chains all around the world when the tariffs hit. Throughout our financial strength has been constant. We are very well capitalized. We are very well reserved and we are very disciplined about risk. The quality of our balance sheet is excellent.

Our disciplined client selection and risk appetite result in a very high-quality client base. with nearly 80% of our wholesale exposure investment grade and 85% of our U.S. card customers Prime. We are both financially resilient and operationally resilient, although the latter remains less appreciated than it should now be at every turn in recent years, Citi has served as a flight to quality and a source of support for our clients and for the financial system more broadly. In a world of complexity, we don't see constraints Rather, we see the conditions where Citi is built to perform in ways that few others can. The path to becoming a bank that operates consistently in all seasons has been a very deliberate one. Our transformation has been a core driver of that.

We have better risk management practices and processes that allow us to assess exposures in real time. Our monitoring, reporting and stress testing are faster, more dynamic, and they are grounded in trusted data, and that's what allows us to stay ahead of risk, not merely reacting to it. We have improved how we run the bank with a revamped control environment. We've moved from fragmented manual processes to a standardized firm like framework with far greater use of preventative and automated controls. In data, we have moved to a unified model. we now largely operate with just 2 data repositories, one for institutions and one for consumers, and that's reducing risk and it's unlocking capital. In parallel with our transformation, we have built a modern technology foundation, a simpler tech stack, improved data quality, and we automated work that had no business being manual.

We have built a hybrid cloud model. That is across on-prem and public cloud. It allows us to run workloads in the most efficient environment. It allows us to scale dynamically, and it allows us to avoid tying up capital in assets that just don't keep pace. Together, the investments we have made in our transformation and our technology, they feed directly into client experience and into business delivery. So let's take wholesale credit. It's a nearly $1 trillion corporate portfolio. We have built a unified end-to-end system with consistent standards and a single global process for underwriting, transaction management and portfolio management built on a single tech stack. It's big. It was not a thing of beauty. It is now our clients experience the effect. Execution is more predictable.

Decisions are faster operationally rigorous well controlled. But before I move from our transformation, let me briefly touch on the time line. As I talked about last earnings, we are operating at or nearly at our target state in 90% of transformation programs. The remaining work, which is primarily governance of data for regulatory reporting is moving and advancing ahead of our schedule. As we complete each tranche of work in the transformation, we systematically take down the related expenses. That creates capacity for further investments in the businesses and it benefits our operating efficiency. The time line for the ultimate removal of the consent orders, well, that sits with our regulators.

But the way we run the bank today is fundamentally different from where we started, and it is yielding the benefits. Indeed, our work on the transformation has built an important new muscle. We now implement change quickly and at scale across the firm in a disciplined manner, a real capability and one that's more important than ever because it positions us to move faster and to take full advantage of AI. Our AI implementation well, it cuts across 4 outcomes. First and most importantly, this is about growth. We're not playing at the edges here. This is enterprise-wide. And you're beginning to see it and how we're reinventing our offerings we're accelerating product development life cycles, and we are enhancing the client experience. In wealth, we're partnering with Google to create virtual personal advisers.

In services, we have a multitude of major revenue-generating use cases underway. And in cards, well, we're preparing for a world of agentic commerce and AI-powered personal shoppers. It's early, but we're developing new solutions at a speed we haven't seen before. Second, we're changing how we operate. We're applying AI and automation to our most complex time-consuming processes. So think KYC or reconciliations, loan operations, document processing, these are challenging workflows. And in some cases, we're compressing them from months to days to minutes. Third, we're strengthening our defenses so we can better detect fraud, manage financial crime and stay ahead of cyber threats.

Given the speed of what's going on today, you can imagine how glad we are that we've invested so heavily in our sophisticated defenses, particularly in cyber. And fourth, we're changing how our people work. Last year, we deployed core AI tools to over 180,000 colleagues in 85 countries, and we are investing heavily in upskilling. We're seeing the impact, particularly in engineering, where AI-assisted code reviews have freed up about 100,000 hours of capacity every week. Now we're going further. We're building and scaling AI agents across the firm to support more complex multistep work. And that is putting us at the forefront of where our industry is going. We're not waiting to be disrupted. We are disrupting ourselves deliberately and from a position of strength and scale. So when you put it all together, our businesses, our balance sheet, our global network and how we operate.

This is a bank built both to grow and to perform consistently. And that's what underpins the path to our target returns. So let me lay out what happens across the 2 phases. And let's start with the near term. The work to achieve returns of 11% to 13% in both 2027 and 2028 is well underway. To get there, we will continue driving revenue growth across our businesses. Capture more productivity saves from our investments, whilst continuing to reduce the drag. That drag is from transformation expenses and stranded costs. Third, improve capital productivity. And the combination of these factors will deliver positive operating leverage and drive consistently higher returns. That, in turn, will create capacity for us to continue investing in our businesses to achieve higher sustainable returns over the medium term.

When we reach the medium term, the work we're doing to rebuild city will be complete, and our financial system will be greatly simplified, a clear city. There are 4 drivers that will get us to 14% to 15% return, a more diversified revenue mix with a greater contribution from fees, continued investment to drive stronger business performance. higher productivity, including from technology and AI and fourth, further reduction of the DTA to maximize capital productivity. Gonzalo will walk you through the math for both the near and medium term in a lot of detail. And that will include how we're deploying capital and our commitment to continue returning it to you, our shareholders. Importantly, he will make it evident that we can achieve these return levels organically. Let me conclude my opening remarks by emphasizing this. We have built a track record for doing what we say we will do. We have complete conviction in the path ahead. We will get this done. So thank you for being here. I very much look forward to answering your questions later this morning. And now we'll start the business presentations. Thank you.

[Presentation]

Please welcome Head of Services Shahmir Khaliq.

Good morning. and thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Shahmir Khaliq, Head of Services for Citi. This is our third Investor Day for services since 2022, and it's absolutely great to be back. During our last Investor Day, we talked about services as the global economy's connective tissue, making payments, managing liquidity, safeguarding assets driving investments and commerce across the globe on a 24/7 basis. Our strategy across our 5 business remains crystal clear. continue to build the Global Bank of the future through innovation, strategic investment and seamless integration. As we execute on our growth agenda, we expect to retain our #1 institutional rap while continuing to grow our 11.5% market share.

You're probably already familiar with much of the content on our slide from last Investor Day. But as a reminder, let me share a few highlights with you. Our global network remains an unmatched differentiator with an on-the-ground presence exceeding all of our competitors. And this network is getting harder to replicate. We have meaningful scale processing $6 trillion in payments daily across 180 countries, while safeguarding $31 trillion in assets under custody and administration and managing nearly $1 trillion in deposits. You can see on the slide a fundamental strength of our business, 1 city with deep synergies across the entire firm. Three of our revenue comes from clients leveraging the combined power of services, markets and banking. This integration is a strategic differentiator it creates stickier, more profitable relationships and drive significant value for both our clients and our shareholders.

This will be a consistent theme today. which my partners, Andy and Vis will also cover shortly. Over the last 4 years, we've shared our story with you. And today, I'm here to show you how we've delivered on those promises and more importantly, how we execute our road map into the future. Now let's review our financial highlights. But on top of the slide, as you can see, we delivered record revenues of $22.6 billion with an annual growth rate of 12% and and noninterest revenue also growing at 10% during the same period. Operationally, we've remained highly disciplined while making investments to scale our platform. We've improved our efficiency ratio by 600 basis points to 48%, resulting in an EBIT of $11.4 billion, a 16% increase since 2022 all of this has culminated in a 24.6% return on tangible common equity for 2025.

That's right in line with our mid-20s target. If you look at the bottom of the slide, you'll also see we've outperformed on market share, delivering on our medium-term goals ahead of schedule, having captured share across both products and client segments. In the TTS Institutional segment, we gained about 170 basis points of wallet share since 2022 and maintained our #1 position across liquidity, payments and trade. The Commercial Bank is an exciting opportunity for Citi. Since 2022, our focused efforts have delivered significant market share gains, exceeding our 25 basis point target, and we've grown revenue by 1.5x since our 2022 Investor Day.

But despite this rapid growth, we remain only about 1/3 of the size of the market leaders leading a path for expansion into a wallet where we see $100 billion addressable opportunity. And in Security Services, we gained approximately 240 basis points of wallet share since 2022 and closed $1 billion gap to our closest competitor. So as you can see on the page, Services has met or exceeded all Investor Day targets for revenue, ROTCE and market share. I get asked a lot of questions about the performance of our services business during periods of macroeconomic challenges and low interest rate environments. On this slide, I wanted to illustrate how services is a through-the-cycle business and give you a historical view of how we performed over the last decade.

And if I can ask you to take one word away from this slide, that would be resiliency. Our resiliency is a result of our commitment to our footprint, our suite of products across our 5 interconnected businesses our strategy to support clients through uncertainty and lastly and very importantly, continuous innovation. On the top right-hand side of the slide, you can see what this resiliency means for our business. We are deeply embedded in our clients' operations, and this results in long-standing relationships with sticky global deposits, recurring transactional flows and embedded FX. This all contributes to the consistent performance we've seen across our core fee drivers, including scalability over the last few years. And therefore, gives us the confidence to continue to deliver going forward.

And on the left side of this slide, you can see our track record of delivering consistently over the last 10 years. during this period, even in times of recessionary environment with interest rates close to 0, the business still delivered ROTCE in the mid- to high teens. And as you can see, since 2016, we've doubled the size of our business. While we've benefited from higher rates, our outperformance was also driven by balanced growth across our entire business. Revenue and pretax earnings have both grown at approximately 8%, far outpacing global GDP growth and the services wallet which has also been supported by a 6% growth in both our deposits and our noninterest revenue. Our focus on high-quality recurring fee income is delivering clear results.

And in the first quarter of this year alone, you can see it in the last bar, we generated nearly $2 billion in noninterest revenue, demonstrating the power of the core revenue stream. Therefore, the ability to be there for our clients in all environments results in city capturing significant mind and wallet share over time. As we look forward, we are all navigating a rapidly evolving landscape with disruptive innovations like AI digital assets and tokenization are reshaping client behavior and expectations. These changes have the potential to reset market structures across all financial services. On top of that, we're addressing persistent themes such as e-commerce acceleration and supply chain restructurings. And in the investment business, ETFs continue their growth, driven by clients' desire for simpler more accessible and cheaper solutions.

Lastly, but just as importantly, client experience, given all these technological advances will be a critical area of focus for all of us across the industry to simplify and to improve. Given all these dynamics that you see on the slide, I believe our strategy summarized on the right side is well positioned for the future, centered on 3 focus areas: first, executing our client agenda to drive growth. then furthering next-generation platforms to support the future of transaction services; and lastly, driving innovation to deliver client solutions. Let me walk you through each of these. First, let's talk about our client strategy and how we're translating our strong foundation into future growth. So as you can see on the slide, we are enhancing our position with institutional clients, a key component of our 17,000 client base.

This segment represents the largest and most operationally complex companies operating around the world. And as you heard earlier in the video, they all rely on city to carry out their day-to-day operations. And in many, many cases, we are the only bank that is able to facilitate their critical cross-border business. Our integrated FX partnership with markets serves as a key differentiator for us and a testament to our One city model. Andy will discuss this further shortly. As an example, over 90% of services revenue with Fortune 500 companies comes from clients doing business with us in over 10 countries. Our strategy for growing wallet share with this client segment is very clear and focused. First, we're deepening our client relationships in key geographies with a particular emphasis on strengthening our position in North America.

Second, we are expanding our market reach with innovative new solutions across our entire network. Now in the middle of the slide, as you can see, we are focused on supercharging growth in strategic underpenetrated client segments. We've made meaningful progress here and are focused on absolutely accelerating it. Starting with the Commercial Bank. We have a targeted strategy with a goal to be the go-to bank for midsized corporates for international financial services needs. North America is again a key market and represents our single largest opportunity. Within this segment, we've delivered an annual growth rate of 12% since 2022. And significantly outperforming the global wallet. This performance also reflects our strong partnership with banking. You'll hear more on this from this later but we are confident that we are incubating the next generation of global champions.

For asset manager and owner clients, we are developing enhanced data solutions to provide a single multi-asset real-time view. Our investments in this segment have helped drive over 14% annual growth in assets under custody and administration since 2022. And finally, on the far side of the slide, we are capturing share in key verticals that continue to show outsized growth. As an example, we are capitalizing on the sustained growth in e-commerce, evidenced by a 250% increase in average daily instant payment volumes from 2022 to 2025. Meanwhile, our ETF servicing capabilities have enabled us to deliver over a 250% increase in our North America ETF business. In fact, BlackRock recently chose us to provide select middle office services for $4 trillion in U.S. domiciled iShares ETFs on the Aladdin platform.

So as you can see from this slide, our engagement with the world's most complex clients is paramount. And central to our strategy is a co-creation agenda that guides our efforts across our entire client book of business. This approach fuels our growth. evidenced by the tailored solutions our teams have co-created with leading institutions across e-commerce, fintech and financial institution clients. Let me now talk about how our platform strategy contributes to this client agenda going forward. Again, as you heard in the video, the concept of co-creation is fundamental to our approach. It allows us to build technology platforms structured around our clients' needs, empowering them to run their businesses effectively worldwide. And services continues to invest north of $2 billion annually to drive our platform strategy across our 5 businesses.

And here, we are anchored around 3 foundational principles: you can see them on the left, real-time, scalable and always on, a modern infrastructure stack, including our client-facing platforms and a strong data and AI foundation. With a focus on speed, scale and availability, these principles empower us to evolve our platforms and commercialize innovative solutions at the pace of a fintech. You can see some proof points on the right-hand side of the slide. We've doubled the number of applications running on modern architecture, which has made us far more agile and efficient. You can also see evidence of this in our custody business, where we saw a 37% increase in settlement volumes while reducing cost per transaction by 25% over the same period. Both these examples illustrate our ability to leverage technology for enhanced productivity and revenue generation.

Another powerful example of our execution is the Citi Payments Express platform. As some of you may recall, we launched it in 2022. And and it is already processing up to 10 million payments in a single day with the capacity to do much, much more. That volume represents nearly 40% of our total payment volume, which is a testament to its rapid adoption. This pace of commercialization from idea to a core part of our infrastructure is on par with any fintech, demonstrating our ability to innovate and win. And on top of this, we are differentiated by our ability to scale this innovation across our global network. Express is already live in 22 markets and will reach 30 by year-end. As you can see on the bottom right-hand side of the slide, these investments also enhance client satisfaction as reflected in our latest survey.

We are very proud of our progress and client experience and remain committed to driving further improvement Continuing with our platform agenda, let me spend some time talking about AI, which is integral to our strategy. AI's impact for potential and disruption is still in the early stages. However, we believe it is a transformative force that will allow us to reshape our platforms. Our AI strategy has 2 primary goals: enhancing our clients' business models, while also improving our own internal processes and operational efficiency. We are strategically deploying AI through specialized practical solutions you can see them on the slide, structured around 5 pillars that directly address client and business needs. Critically, this is all governed by a close partnership with our risk and control teams. This has enabled us to build a pipeline of over 50 use cases across services, some already live with the rest actively being built, demonstrating our ability to innovate safely and at scale.

Each of these use cases should result in enhanced revenue generation, a superior client experience, improved client solutions while also reducing operational overhead. Let me share with you the benefits of what we're already starting to see. On the left side, the sales assist pillar is a set of use cases designed to augment our sales teams. We have close to 10,000 complex client engagements annually. Our goal using AI is to streamline these engagements, which should result in, frankly, a significant reduction in sales cycle times, faster commercialization and improved client insights. This should drive wins, revenue and market share. On the bottom of the slide, you can see some of the other early results. By leveraging AI in our technology development, we've shortened cycle times driven by a 30% to 40% boost in developer productivity.

We expect these gains to increase as the underlying models continue to mature. Our intelligent document processing platform, which is part of our Ops assist pillar, automates client onboarding and streamlines the digital process of incoming documents cutting review times by 80%. And we are deploying generative AI to accelerate client resolutions at a global scale, empowering 6,000 service agents across 72 countries who handle over 3 million inquiries annually by instantly synthesizing data for each inquiry, these tools have reduced servicing efforts by up to 25%. And finally, our CitiDirect AI assistant has improved containment rates by 50%, driving faster resolutions and higher client satisfaction. Even in these early days, it is clear that AI is a powerful engine for growth.

Our disciplined approach grounded in strategy, governance and risk oversight ensures that as this technology matures, it will unlock sustained growth and efficiency for our firm and deliver superior outcomes for our clients. The benefits we're already realizing from AI are a clear testament to our commitment to innovation, which is integral to our growth agenda. And as I highlighted earlier, we are focused on delivering the near-instant always on and interoperable solutions our clients demand. By commercializing with anchor clients, we accelerate our time to market and revenue. This agility is a core differentiator for Citi. Now let me give you some examples which bring to life what you see on the slide starting right at the top with payments. Our state-of-the-art 24/7 clearing solution is live and scaling fast.

With over 300 bank clients already actively engaged leveraging this capability, we have strong momentum and expect significant growth ahead. This solution also removes friction by improving liquidity efficiency, reducing funding costs and eliminating payment cutoffs. We also recently announced an exciting integration with our blockchain platform, pushing our capabilities even further. I look forward to telling you more about that very shortly. Within payments, our innovation agenda also includes cross-border payments. Our solutions are integrated with City Markets FX capabilities unlocking currency payers across the globe. This allows clients to make cross-border payments in a variety of currencies near real time into accounts, wallets and cards. Looking at that second box, it's important to point out that payments and liquidity are complementary and essential building blocks for a modern transaction services business.

Therefore, as you look at that box, please note that global services deposits are not idle balances. They are the operational lifeblood of the world's largest multinational corporations. For example, half of the global Fortune 500 with over $40 trillion in combined revenue, use cities liquidity structures to run their business. And within our liquidity solutions, our robust pooling and sweet structures serve over 2,700 clients in more than 80 countries, facilitating over $24 trillion in sweeps annually. And in our trade business, our automated onboarding solution called Nirvana added 27,000 new buyer supplier relationships just over the last year alone, bringing us to 440,000 in total on the platform. Our trade business is highly scaled and facilitated about $1 trillion of financing throughput in 2025, which is also reflected in our market-leading ranking.

Then within our Investor Services business, single event processing delivers near real-time asset servicing via a unified custody infrastructure. This solution cut corporate action notification time by 95%, giving CIOs faster access to their cash and the ability to generate higher returns. We will be the only custodian in the world that can deliver the benefits of single event processing at this global scale. And finally, our Issuer Services business is at the forefront of digital issuance capability, having already issued $1 billion in digitally native notes. We have been an early mover in this space and expect to grow meaningfully taking distributed ledger technology from pilot projects into mainstream market practice. So as you can see, innovation isn't just a buzzword for us.

It's embedded into our strategy, directly serving our clients' evolving needs and frankly, driving our growth by commercializing at scale. Remember, we are not investing in hobbies. On the contrary, we're focused on innovation that is centered around co-creation with our clients. Let's now turn our attention to digital assets. I know that's a topic of significant and an area of interest. Citi has been strategically building its blockchain and digital asset capabilities for about 5 years. Our road map is directly shaped by partnerships with leading corporations fintechs and banks ensuring we solve for real-world needs. Regarding stable coins, we remain open-minded about our role in the ecosystem. While we observe that the use in true payment activities is still nascent, our blockchain-based city token infrastructure gives us the ability to issue a city stable coin, and we will continue to evaluate this option as client needs evolve.

So what have we done so far? If you look at the left side, and as I referenced earlier, we have built out city token services, which allows us to move tokenized deposits around the world on an always-on and 24/7 basis. We are live in 5 key global locations, supporting both U.S. dollars and euro flows. And client adoption has been strong with hundreds of clients moving close to $1 billion each day. For now, the most relevant use case for our multinational clients has been using our tokenize deposit capabilities for more reflectant liquidity and working capital management. We are also embedding this technology into our USD 247 clearing solution, building a vital bridge between blockchain and traditional payment networks. As the second box on the slide summarizes the growth in digital adoption and digital assets adoption creates a significant new challenge for our clients, which is seamless interoperability between Fiat tokens and stable coins.

We are working on creating optionality for our clients to use all these instruments while abstracting away the underlying complexity. A few months ago, we announced a partnership with Coinbase to enhance the bridge between traditional and digital finance through on and off ramps for all major stable coin providers. If you look at the next box, we continue to build out digital assets-related custody solutions. We have already started with offering custody for stablecoin reserves and crypto ETFs. In addition, we will soon launch custody services for native crypto assets like Bitcoin. This is mission-critical because our institutional clients demand the bank-grade custody solutions they can trust. And finally, on the right-hand side, we're dedicating to servicing leading virtual asset service provider clients. This is a high-growth segment where we are supporting treasury management and payments while also helping them build on and off ramps for their respective services with both traditional and digital asset solutions.

By delivering on all these fronts, we create real value for our clients as their needs evolve, especially as our proprietary network gives us the unique and nonreplicable opportunity to deliver all of these solutions globally in an integrated fashion. So I hope today's discussion has reinforced why services is at the heart of Citi's global network. We are proud to continue building on our track record of delivering on our commitments. We believe no other firm is better positioned to win than city. Our differentiated footprint, our scale, our deep client relationships and our unique ability to co-create solutions with our clients gives us an unmatched advantage but our ambition is even greater as we continue to build the global bank of the future. This strategy amplified by the powerful One Citi integration you will see today translates directly into financial performance, driving a low to mid-single-digit revenue CAGR in the near term, while fueling our ability to deliver a mid-20s ROTCE through the cycle. We are not just making commitments we are absolutely delivering results. Thank you.

[Presentation]

Please welcome Head of Markets Andy Morton.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Andy Morton. I'm Head of Markets here at Citi. First of all, I'd like to thank probably our most successful alum for his very kind remarks, which I'm going to refer to a couple of times later in my talk. I'm extremely delighted to talk to you today about our business. But first, just a couple of points about myself. I joined Citi in 2008, originally to lead the rates in fixed income financing groups. Then 6 years ago, I became co-head of markets. And 3 years ago, I took over a. At Citi's last Investor Day, we set out a vision of markets to simplify our business and produce higher returns. I'm happy to tell you that we delivered on both those goals. Today, I'm going to demonstrate the power of this franchise and how we can produce even higher returns over the next few years.

Let me get started with just a high-level overview so very simply, we're in the business of market making and financing with institutional clients around the world. And we have 5 product lines. The 4 on the left affects read rates commodities, they're collectively known as fixed income. And as you can see, we have solid share in all 4 -- and in aggregate, we're the #2 player in the space. And we have been for as long as I can remember. In equities, by contrast, we have room to grow with a 5% share. And this will be a topic I'll come back to later. Fixed income makes up about 3/4 of our revenue with equities the other 1 quarter. And at the bottom, I've set out a few other distinguishing features of our franchise. We have people on the ground in 78 countries. We are, by some margin, the largest dealer in foreign exchange in the world.

And as Jane mentioned, our long-term portion to equities is paying off in the short term. Revenue is up 40% year-on-year in Q1. Now let's look at the financials. Revenues have been growing at a 3% pace, unadjusted for businesses we exited since 2022. In the top row, in addition, illustrates some big shifts in our business mix. You see there in the left panel, financing has been growing at about a 9% rate. And on the right-hand side at the top, equities at a 10% rate. More importantly, let's look at the bottom line. which is on the bottom line. You see our efficiency ratio has been improving in the last few years, down to 63% roughly. And at $6.2 billion of net income were very, very material for the firm. But the most important number on the page is right here, 11.6% is our ROTCE. This is what we're focused on. We hit our old target of 10% to 13% 1 year early.

And of course, as you know, we had a great start to this year with 19% ROTCE in Q1. Now I want to get progressively closer to showing you how we make the money in our business. How does the revenue come about? I mentioned the 5 products that we're in. Here, I'm illustrating that 4 of the 5 have $5 billion each in annual revenues approximately very significant scale. We're not reliant on 1 or even 2 of those to be our engines of growth. In the middle 2 pains, I allude to the fact that these products are not islands. They're connected to each other and the rest of city through shared clients, our regional presence and a powerful common technology infrastructure that I'm going to come to later as well. Now let me say a word about Citi's global network. I mentioned the 78 country presence.

Here, you see our very even regional breakout by revenue. No other bank can deliver these products across this breadth. How does it make a difference? How does this play out? In a fracturing world, being able to actually meet the client for a coffee or to deliver last mile local currency payments in, say, Kazakhstan is differentiating. Secondly, we find that emerging markets clients and emerging market governments are increasingly using financial tools that developed market clients have been using for years. If you take it down to numbers, you can see 42% of our revenue comes from non-G10 countries. And I'm expecting that number to grow. And finally, continuing over to the left, of course, we service all the major financial institution segments.

But the important thing you should look at on that ring diagram is our corporate share, more than 30% of our total. And why does this matter? Because corporate flows are far more stable, as I'll demonstrate shortly. And finally, I'm quoting Harry Markowitz, who had met once. He said, diversification is the only free lunch in investing. And I thought about this and I wanted to bring it to life with an example. I always like to think of examples. And as a trader, a former trader, I always think in terms of P&L. And so this is the example I come up with. It's my favorite slide in my entire presentation, just so you know. I would like it to be your favorite slide in the entire day. There's some mild competition coming later.

So let me say what it is, okay? So I should be clear. Last year, we made $22.4 billion in markets. I'm going to show you the trajectory of our actual cumulative P&L day by day through 251 trading days. So I'm obviously going to show you a line that ends at $22.4 billion, and it's obviously going to start at 0. You with me? Okay. So everybody in your own head, you have to think what's it going to look like? What is that graph going to look like. Now I want you to all be honest with yourself. Was it what you expected? You can tell me later. I think you might have expected some bumps. And by the way, 2025 was a pretty interesting year. We had a new President. He did some things. Tenure notes rallied 60 bps in the first 6 weeks after his inauguration.

We had Liberation Day. S&P 500 sold off 10% in the 2 days following we had the first Israeli on War. And of course, later in the year, we had combined tech and private credit concerns. But this was our P&L. So what drives this? Why is that? Why does it come about this way? Or why did it come about this way in 2025? And broadly speaking, I have 2 reasons. The first, I already showed you Five products, 5 regions, 5 client segments, plus the increase in financing that I mentioned. Secondly, and this probably kicks in more on the really big days kind of like the ones I'm referring to on the page the nature of the client flows and the risk exposures that we have in equities are pretty different to what originates in fixed income. And on those big days, it's quite diversifying and very helpful.

Let me close by showing you 23 and 24, so you can see the difference. And you can see that the stability and of course, the outright revenue number are already improving just over 2 years. So I said I wanted to show you how we make the money. Where does our revenue come from? And there's no better place to show you that than FX to start. Our FX business enjoys a great partnership with services just as I enjoy a great partnership with Shahmir, and I'm going to show you why that is in the next couple of minutes. So foreign exchange is a very complex activity, thousands of clients, multiple segments. At the risk of heavy simplification, I'm going to boil it down to 2 segments. And not only that, I'm going to summarize each 1 with 1 word.

So financial institutions, hedge funds, asset managers, banks, the word is price. In the end of the day, they want a good price. They want it fast and they want it 24/7. The world's largest foreign exchange dealer can do that. And not only that, our franchise very often provides offsetting flows. But as the pie chart indicates, 70% of our revenue comes from the corporate segment, which is really the core of our business. My word there, my 1 word, is embedded. And I'm going to explain with the real-world example from a real client. So this client is headquartered in Switzerland, and they've got subsidiaries all over the world, and I'm going to pick Pakistan. You can see it there in the blue. Head office up in Switzerland, they use our Global Treasury Center app.

This gives them global FX execution and monitoring capability. Now let's say, the subsidiary down needs to pay dollars to a supplier in Europe Head office executes the trade. So they execute the risk rate, dollar rupee risk rate on behalf of this subsidiary. City feeds the trade into the client's treasury system. What's important to head office is they have accurate global risk exposures around the world. Meanwhile, down in Pakistan, the local team simply makes a rupee payment from their city account via services connectivity. Then a simple FX conversion is generated and the dollar amounts delivered to the supplier's account via again, our services network. And then Citi populates the local system of the client. What the local office cares about is reconciling their supplier payments with the FX trade that head office has done.

And again, our integrated services and FX platform makes this happen. Very, very simple to describe took me 1 minute. Not so easy to build. We've done that with this client in 62 currencies and 57 of their subs. We've laid out a few other statistics down there at the bottom. So I hope this example shows you 2 things. Number one, why our FX revenues are stable, and why our model is not so easily replicated. So now I'm going to hop metaphorically only to the other side of kind of the fixed income spectrum and that's to talk about our spread business. And what do I mean by this spectrum? Why did I introduce that word? Three things really to distinguish FX and spread and they're pretty much at the opposite is, as you'll see was obviously an international activity.

Our spread business is concentrated here in the U.S. FX does almost no financing, as you're going to see spread is largely financing now. And our FX model is highly mature while our spread business has seen big changes. So just by way of background, sort of what is the spread business, what do I mean by that? Years ago, we combined mortgage, corporate bond and municipal trading and so all associated financing into a single group at the firm. And then when Citi created the 5 businesses reporting to the CEO, we brought that group fully into markets. And as you can see, coming out of the COVID crisis, we've got P&L back to 2021. The trading side of this business, in particular, had had a very good run. Volatility and activity levels were high, but both dropped and capital requirements, SAR specifically rose.

So it became quite difficult to profitably trade both munis and secondary credit in particular. By 2023, ROTCE was down to 8%. And -- and so we made some difficult decisions. We exited munis and we exited distressed credit. But on the back of our deep asset class and securitization structuring expertise and seeing growing client demand, we began to expand our lending book. As you can see, these choices together delivered 600 basis points of improvement in spreads ROTCE. And I believe these returns can go even higher. So let me quickly describe a few features of the securitization based lending that we do and it's over there on the right-hand side, suberized. It's mostly senior lending. So by that, I mean, there's a thick tranche of protection below us in the capital structure.

That makes it capital efficient, 40% RWA on average per unit loan extended. Origination spreads are typically double that of similarly rated corporate bonds. So for plus 200 versus silver plus 100, roughly speaking. And as you can see from the pie chart, the underlying collateral is highly diversified. And spread products has expertise in all of these asset classes, reflected in our overall top 3 rating. Finally, our clients are almost entirely large institutions. When you put all that together, you see the expected returns, including the securitization fees on the right-hand side. So net-net, we're very comfortable with this risk. We have an expert team, and that's why we intend to keep growing this activity.

Now Time won't allow me to go through all of our fixed income businesses in the same depth. But I do want you to know about our rates and commodities businesses. They're both exceptional franchises that you should know about. Rates, of course, very close to my own heart. It's not only top 3 in the market but is so in all the major subcomponents as well. Internationally, rates is probably the best example of what I was alluding to before about applying developed market innovation to the emerging markets. This is partly related to a strategic choice we made years ago. to put the local markets and G10 rates units together. Secondly, the business houses most of our fixed income structuring team.

That, in turn, has led to some landmark emerging markets transactions, some of which you can read about in Risk Magazine; and #2 ranking in non-G10 so #2 in non-G3 in 10. Finally, rates as well has a very strong financing component, in this case, called repo. And you see there the number of risk awards that the business has one, due to the client satisfaction, it's generated, and alluded to it in his opening remarks. Finally, commodities. Now as I mentioned at the very beginning, we take a different approach in commodities. It's a nimbler business smaller. We don't try to offer every product in every region. However, as we saw a few years ago, post the Ukraine invasion when energy prices in Europe sort or even in this past quarter with heavy oil volatility, clients value our ability to provide liquidity in the segments we choose listed there are just the main areas we're focused on.

North America Power and Gas, precious metals where we're opening a volt shortly. And again, using our security expertise and asset class expertise for financing across all of commodities. So before turning to the equity side, of the equation of our business. I want to show you the wallet of markets. It's very interesting and very important to understand the strategic direction that we're taking. So this is the bank wallet only. So this is the wallet from coalition that's available to banks. 2 points should stand out, partly because they're in the title. Number one, the wallet has grown materially in the last 6 years by $100 billion from $152 million to $252 million roughly. So why did this happen? And here, since this is more of an external thing, I want to sort of give you some reasons, but obviously, compared to some of the other things that we're talking about is less under city's control.

But I wanted to put forward what I think are some of the factors that have led to this development in the wallet. It's kind of hard to remember now, but in the period between 2011 and 2021, Inflation was incredibly low. U.S. core PCE was below 2%, 90% of the time. Not only that, even though the miss was kind of small, authorities were concerned enough to keep real rates at 0 just to try to get inflation up. Then COVID happened, fiscal spending, burst of inflation, which really hasn't still gone away. Secondly, you may remember the term secular stagnation associated with excess savings or excess demand for savings. Of course, right now, we have the exact opposite. We have excess demand for investment in AI and technology. And this has pushed real rates up.

We also have high government issuance around the world. And as I alluded to, emerging market countries are tapping Capital Markets products historically used only by developed market clients. So my own view is that many of these factors will sustain. But as I mentioned, I wanted to put it out there so you can make your own assessment. And then the second piece that I highlight, equally important is the shift of the mix of the wallet between fixed income and equities. For that first decade really up into and including 2020 the fixed income equity split was about 70-30. Post COVID, it's moved to 60-40. At the bottom, I've listed just a few what I would call micro or more equity-driven factors that have contributed to this. I won't go through them. But again, I would argue, and I think myself that they're likely to be here to stay.

These wallet dynamics have had a pretty big effect on bank performance. So I want to show you that next. The first bit pains me slightly to show it, I must admit. But the growth of the equity wallet was very helpful to our large U.S. peer competitors who had a full platform built out in 2022. They've seen 40% revenue growth since then. This is total, by the way, not CAGR. At Citi, we're extremely proud of how we've grown revenues by 31% whilst improving our platform. And at the bottom, you can see that we've now surpassed our average European competitor as measured by 2025 revenues. But it's returns that are important, so let's add returns to the picture. So I'll give you a second to take this 1 in. It's relatively straightforward. I'm showing revenues on the horizontal axis, ROTCE on the vertical axis. And of course, the position of Citi's equity and fixed income business in the middle.

I would say if you want to have 1 slide takeaway for the strategy that we're undertaking in markets, it would be this slide. It explains to you why it is we're doing what we're doing in city markets. You can see there our fixed income business very healthy. just under $17 billion of revenues last year and mid-teens returns. Equities, as I mentioned earlier, higher fixed costs, returns are lower at our current size, and you can estimate the weighted average ROCE is 116 exactly as I highlighted on the first slide. But now just as on my previous slide, I want to add the competitor picture. Again, a little painful, but it is what it is. The other 4 large U.S. banks had revenues of about $13 billion to $14 billion in high-teens returns according to our estimate.

So it shouldn't surprise you to see what our strategy is in equities continue to scale and grow to take a bigger piece of this pie. So next, I'm going to show you why I'm extremely confident that we will do that. But first, let me give you a little bit of evidence that's our progress since 2022. So now let's talk a little bit about City equities and how we will close that gap. As it happens, the biggest driver of our equity revenue expansion over the past few years, 22 to 25 has actually been equity derivatives. We've got exceptional capabilities in Corporate Solutions, in structured notes, complex derivatives, and we're also top 3 in futures and derivative clearing. But even as Jane mentioned earlier, the critical ingredient for long-term growth in equities is the quantity of prime balances. And why is that?

Again, it's that financing word, Prime balances provide stable financing revenue. But moreover, they provide kind of a halo effect that creates stickier client relationships and more cash execution. You see we've doubled more than doubled, in fact, prime balances from $200 billion in 2022 to $450 billion in 2025. You may say, Andy, the stock market has gone up. But more than half of this, 55% of this increase actually comes from client acquisition. So that's our track record. -- derivative capability, platform stability. Why will this growth continue? I'm going to give you 3 reasons. Number one, and this is really the most important. This is the critical reason. And referred to it himself. The clients we're building with are already city's clients. In fact, they're usually clients of our dominant fixed income franchise. They know us. They like us. They want to put balances with us.

Some of them tell us they want another large partner because nearly 50% of the market is concentrated in 3 players. And many people don't want to be on the other side of that. My second reason is the strategic investments we're making in the platform, again, as alluded to by Jane earlier, and I'm going to mention them briefly in a second. And finally, 1 city. Our growth is going to be heavily boosted by the improvements in banking and wealth, which Vis and Andy will be telling you about in a couple of minutes. And I want to close on equities, just if you focus at the bottom of my slide, by emphasizing something that I just briefly alluded to. For a variety of reasons, the number of stock exchange connections you have to make, the requirement for high-speed and high-volume technology Equities is much more of a fixed cost business than fixed income.

Or put another way, it's a scale business. Returns accelerate once you cover the fixed cost. And we've illustrated that here as we show our plans into the near term, the expenses don't grow nearly as quickly as the revenues so I spoke about investments this is a good time to switch and give you a picture of the investment picture across all the markets. And what's important to take away is that the level of investments we're making in our franchise is materially increased. I just finished speaking about the importance of the prime platform to equities, so you won't be surprised to see that listed at the top. In a nutshell, what are we doing? We're just growing the outright capacity of the platform, the volume, the number of trades, the speed of trades and so on that we can take on board. And secondly, the product set for the next set of clients that are coming to the platform.

We're bringing clients on board sort of in order, if you will. On the fixed income side, again, as you'd expect, the set of investments is more diverse. In commodities, we're opening a precious metal volt in London just this month. In rates, the huge investment is in our low latency and Algo capabilities. As I alluded to before, large U.S. treasury and swap dealers like Citi, we get most of the big risk transfer flows from clients in the marketplace. But given that we have that foundation, why should we leave money on the table for the smaller, faster markets. And so that's part of our investment plan going forward. I already mentioned our plans in spread lending. And of course, just like is, we're continuing to improve our cross-border payment and custody infrastructure. In fact, we're doing it jointly with them. That's our future investments.

Let me show you some of the results of the past investments that we've made largely in consort with our colleagues in Market Tech. This is a pretty long-term time line. Many of you are users of velocity Velocity got started just a few years after I joined the firm. In fact, we started behind 2 other major dealers that had leading platforms then. Now we have the leading platform and not velocity. Olympus. It's 1 of only 2 strategic data repositories at the firm. It began its life as the single source of truth of data inside of markets. Much, much more can be said about stylists that's our democratized GenAI platform, which delivers modern, safe AI access to all of our employees. But by far, so far, the biggest single impact of technology to us in markets has been the Zing platform.

So let me just walk you through that briefly. It's an ultra-modern, scalable, decentralized risk management platform. started small. It started as an analytics library just developed by our quant Group. Now as you can see in the middle, it includes transactions, environments and even results. Something as simple as transactions is different depending on the use cases. There's nothing so simple as just give me a list of all the trades you have. Each use case and I list some of the use cases there on the right, has its own requirement for a transaction list, for example. The other big feature of the Zinc platform is each asset class, be it credit, FX, rates, maintains its own calculation library. They need to do that. They're the experts. But the trade-off is those asset class libraries must meet rigorous common standards.

And as a consequence, complex calculations can be done in a robust and very scalable way. Of course, since it's a markets platform, 100% effectively, 100% of markets transactions are zinc compatible. But what we're most pleased about is the left-hand side, the user base. It's growing rapidly. Because of the API, because of its self-service nature, colleagues in risk and finance or anywhere in the firm can access zinc capabilities. So this obviously is going to have huge and is having huge long-term benefits, eliminating duplication of both data and software, of course, speeding up development and compute costs. So I like examples, kind of examples, guy. Here is the best example of how cool this technology is. We can write a 20-line Python program that runs a scenario stress test on our entire markets trading portfolio, 20 lines of Python, that's it.

I would argue, again, that in this case, we've leapfrogged some of our competitors who tend to have more big box, all or non-type systems that were built years ago. So net-net, it's clear to me is ahead of markets that technology is a huge competitive edge for us. I'm going to show you 1 last competitive edge, and that's our capital productivity. So I've explained to you how we make the money, how we make our top line revenue, I hope. And through the investments that we're making and the opportunities that we have, the prospects for top line growth across the entire franchise. But its returns that matter. And we have a fantastic track record with the denominator as well, capital.

Those of you who remember the last Investor Day were here for it, you may recall when it came to the business discussion about markets, we weren't at that point disclosing externally TCE for markets or indeed any of the other businesses. So what we did was we used revenue over RWA as a proxy. We're running that at 4.3%, and we set ourselves a 5.5% intermediate-term target. We got there early, in fact, hit 6.1%. Notice how we did it. we went down in RWA between 2021 and 2024. I can't talk about any individual competitor in this regard, but certainly, the entire industry went up. ROTCE has since replaced revenue over RWA, but the techniques we use are the same. So let me just quickly highlight what those are. And I'll go back to what we did beginning with the origination of this program and this team when Sacra came out.

We set up a capital team reporting to someone in my group. And the first thing they came back with was -- if you want to improve something, you need to measure it frequently and with high granularity. So we've built the capability in the business to produce daily RWA and G-SIB numbers for management choices. Then we decided, as the next step to think through how we allocate those precious resources. And what we did as a markets group is maybe not surprising. We created an internal market for capital including auctions and bilateral trades between different desks. This gets the right incentives out across the entire enterprise. And the involvement of the whole enterprise and the whole franchise leads to better client transactions.

And there's room in this space for transactions which are very economically beneficial to clients, but also capital efficient for us. So let me close with a summary. I hope I've shown you the incredible strength of Citi's Markets franchise and maybe some things you didn't expect. I've also been very clear on where there's room for us to take share. especially with the significant investments we're making. I've shown you reasons why the wallet could remain elevated. Putting it all together makes me very confident that our revenues will grow at that mid-single-digit rate. I'm certain that in markets, we have a mindset which is returns driven across the whole enterprise.

So let's look at the specific numbers. We finished 2025 at 11.6%. That's 11% after the firm's change in TCE methodology earlier this year. It's very reasonable to expect another 200 basis points bringing us to a very lucky 13-plus percent. So on behalf of all my colleagues in markets, I can assure you we will do our best to deliver that. And I'd like to thank you very much for your kind attention today. I really have to credit Citi for in recent years how they've really rolled up their sleeves, understood our business also brought different perspectives to help our business become better. They've been great strategic advisers pushing the envelope and our thinking to get to a better solution, not just for our investors, but for our patients as well.

Having a partner with the financing capability, the strategic insight and the global reach to support us at scale is critical. City has earned that role. Our financial partnerships need to be reliable, responsive and proactive. That's where Citi stands out. So when it came time to raise capital, we turn to a partner we could trust return to Citi. We know that when we're trying to work through complexity, that city will be able to provide us important advice knowing who we are and what we're trying to do. And that will make a real difference in where we lean in and where we don't.

[Presentation]

Please welcome Head of Banking and Executive Vice Chair.

Good morning, everyone. I'm this Raghavan, it's great to be with you all here today. 2 years ago, I stepped into this role with exceptionally high expectations about the power and potential of our banking franchise. I'm excited to share that they've since been exceeded by every measure. But before I get into the numbers, I want to start with something more fundamental. Our purpose at Citi, our ambition is to be the preeminent banking partner for clients with cross-border needs. That is our North Star. It shapes every decision we make, how we are organized, how we deploy capital and how we serve. And at the heart of that ambition is a simple belief when our clients succeed, we succeed. Our job is to help them grow, help them navigate complexity and realize their strategic ambitions. And when we do that well, consistently and at scale, the returns follow.

Today, I'll cover 3 things. The strength of our banking model and why we have a genuine right to win, the deliberate work we've done to build a stronger, more integrated franchise and the clear plan we've been executing to gain share and deliver higher sustainable returns at the heart of banking is our world-class franchise powered by 3 businesses. Our leading corporate bank, where we are #1 internationally, our growing commercial bank, an incubator of next-generation clients and our top-tier investment bank, top 3 in debt capital markets and top 5, both in equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions. Our banking franchise is the embodiment of One Citi. For clients, we serve as the front door from strategic dialogue to deploying capital, connecting them to the full part of our franchise. We are not just a product provider.

We are a partner in their success. You heard from Shahmir and Andy about the strength and breadth of their businesses. In banking, many of the products we deliver sit in services or markets, helping clients manage trade flows, execute payments or hedge FX, for example. Banking is also deeply connected with wealth and the number of referrals between our 2 businesses has been steadily increasing. The numbers you see on the slide tell the story of banking's impact. On the bottom left, you can see that we enabled $39 billion of revenue broadly across the firm last year. And banking's on reported P&L on the bottom right shows an additional $6 billion. over $45 billion of total revenue impact. That is the power of One Citi and the result of putting clients first. Here, you see a snapshot of our excellent progress since the last Investor Day.

On the top left, 2025 banking revenue of $6.4 billion, a 10% CAGR since 2022. And the upper right shows our balance sheet might with $415 million of committed exposure. On the bottom right, you see that our investment banking wallet share has been steadily increasing, and the result is on the bottom left, ROTC that's up significantly from 2022. This is more than just cyclical luck. It's a result of disciplined execution sharper capital allocation and fully integrated client coverage. And the opportunity ahead is substantial. Our competitive advantages are real and they are durable. When I arrived, what struck me most of our Citi was this amazing franchise with much more value waiting to be unlocked. Our client relationships are top tier. Citi's global network cannot be replicated, and our brand carries real weight in board rooms around the world.

As you see on the left, it starts with deep and long-tenured client relationships. Nearly 60% of our clients have been with Citi for more than 10 years, including relationships dating back more than a century in some cases. That is remarkable and a testament to our people and Citi's ability to successfully serve clients through the cycle. And for the next generation of global champions, we are serving them through our growing commercial bank. In fact, the overall number of commercial banking clients increased roughly 25% since the last Investor Day. And our franchise is strongly balanced across sectors and geographies. As you see in the middle, it includes roughly 80% of Fortune 500 companies, both here in the U.S. and globally, and our exposures are highly weighted towards investment grade.

So why do clients Banquet Citi? A big reason is our unmatched global scale and network. Citi's on the ground in 90 countries. As you heard from Jane and Shahmir, we have a closed-loop network that handles $6 trillion in payments daily. No other provider can come close to a combination of depth, scale and reach. That is why we are uniquely positioned to serve clients with cross-border needs. And while helping them navigate today's complexities is both our mission and our competitive edge. And that is particularly invaluable in today's multipolar world. Our model delivers because of the strong operational connectivity we have with clients. As I mentioned earlier, it starts with deep rooted entrenched relationships. Citi is often plugged directly into our clients' infrastructure, giving us a reason to be in dialogue every single day.

Our corporate bankers provide strategic counsel at the finance and operational level, balance sheet optimization, liquidity, swaps, FX, capital allocation, you name it. And our commercial bankers work directly with founders who value Citi's partnership and globality as they scale. For these clients, our cross-border capabilities are not just a feature it's the reason they choose us. They help them move capital, manage risk and expand internationally in ways no other institution can match. And when clients are ready to tap capital markets or pursue M&A, investment banking industry expertise and financing powers drives trusted C-suite and board level engagement. This is about serving clients holistically and being a true partner, helping them to realize their vision and achieve their strategic objectives. When they win, we win.

On the bottom of the slide, you will see some of the amazing clients we have the privilege of serving. I'd like to bring to life what I've been talking about with a few examples. Johnson & Johnson. As you heard from the CFO a moment ago in the video, we have an exceptional relationship with them. It spans 75 years, and we serve them in more than 50 countries across multiple products, including payments and lending but Citi was not historically in primary position for strategic advisory. To address that, we put the right talent in place and establish trust at the CEO, CFO and Board level. Since then, the results speak for themselves. In 2025, Citi advised J&J on its $15 billion acquisition of intracellular. Subsequently, we're advising them on plans to separate their multibillion-dollar orthopedics business, leveling up the relationship, earning mind share, delivering for Johnson & Johnson.

And I always believe no endorsement speaks louder than repeat business. Imagine how many more J&Js are out there where we have a right to win Paramount. When Paramount proceed Warner Bros. last year, City was by their side, every step of the way serving as adviser and leading $54 billion of committed financing with conviction and with speed, coverage, M&A, financing, risk markets, all synchronized, all working together. And while M&A grabs a glamorous headlines, it's happening across our franchise. An example from capital markets, this one with Oracle, another client you saw in the video. When Oracle announced a $50 million capital raise this January, including their first equity raise in 40 years, it was city that designed, executed and delivered. We engaged early, led with differentiated content and execute it impactably.

When we lead with client mind share, wallet chair follows. This is what's possible when we match strong client relationships with industry-leading talent powered by Citi's platform, a truly virtuous circle. And despite these success stories, we are just getting started the foundation we built is strong, but I want to be clear about something. This didn't happen by accident and it didn't happen overnight. After joining, it was a deliberate choice to focus first on fundamentals before chasing the upside. We had to enhance how we were organized, how we deployed capital, how we cover clients and how we thought about talent, get those things right and the results follow. I'd like to spend these next few minutes talking about what we've achieved thus far and why we are well positioned for the future. We have been taking deliberate actions to build a high-performing, sustainable and scalable model.

The work we are doing cuts across 5 dimensions all delivering. First, an integrated organization. We've unified leadership across corporate, commercial and investment banking. In the past, these businesses operated too independently, sometimes siloed. Today, they are genuinely connected, sharing intelligence, sharing clients, sharing ownership with accountability. This has unlocked revenue synergies and improved how we cover clients and deliver for them. Second, best-in-class talent. Strategic investments have been made to replenish and strengthen our bench. We have combined the best of Citi's own talent with industry-leading hires from across the street. We're building a team that knows what serial winning looks like and is passionate and hungry to do it. Third, One Citi capital deployment.

We established a banking balance sheet forum with representation from across Citi's institutional businesses. Capital allocation decisions are being made with alignment across finance, risk, markets, services and wealth. Every dollar is deployed with a purpose and with clear ownership and accountability. Fourth, aligned risk-taking. We have a disciplined, fully aligned approach when it comes to key priorities such as leveraged finance and securities underwriting. It's always done in full partnership with colleagues in finance, risk and markets. And finally, ownership and accountability. More than ever before, we have a metrics-based approach for measuring productivity, relationship depth and wallet capture. And performance evaluations and compensation are transparently and directly connected to results.

When I spoke earlier about banking as the portal through which clients experience city, that starts with our corporate and commercial bank. As I noted, through services and markets products, Citi becomes indispensable to our clients' day-to-day functioning. In the corporate bank, this is true, not just for large multinationals, but their subsidiaries operating around the world. When a crisis strikes, markets become volatile or established rails collapse, clients trust Citi for advice. They leverage our intellect, our scale, our network and our financing capabilities so they can continue operating seamlessly. And our ability to successfully deliver has been tested again and again and again. This also holds true for our commercial bank. And here I want to highlight what makes us different.

Many midsized and emerging companies, the Citi's commercial bank precisely because of our global reach and cross-border capabilities. These companies are growing internationally expanding into new markets, managing multicurrency flows and also navigating complex regulatory environments across borders. They need a partner who can be with them in every market where they operate. That is city. No other institution can offer midsized corporates the same combination of local expertise and truly global access. The success is reflected by the numbers on this page. Our Corporate Bank posted 15% growth in average revenue per client and year-on-year client revenue growth of 11%. Our commercial bank delivered 20% growth in average revenue per client.

And we grew investment banking activity with commercial banking clients by 60%. Let me give you a concrete example of our model in action. McCormick & Company. They are a client we partnered with in Commercial Banking for more than a decade. This includes supporting their growth through working capital solutions, supplier finance, risk management and helping them navigate international markets. As their ambitions grew, so did our partnership. This March, when McCormick announced a landmark $45 billion combination with Unilever's Foods business, Citi was there, providing strategic advice and leaving $16 billion of committed financing. That is the power of our franchise, long-standing relationships that scale seamlessly from commercial banking to complex transformational advisory. We help them grow, we help them go global.

And when the moment comes for a transformational deal, we are their natural partner. This slide spotlights the strategic actions we've been taking across investment banking that are beginning to bear fruit. You see them on the left. The early results show broad-based share gains across products, clients and geographies. Mergers and acquisitions is up 100 basis points. 2025 was the best year for M&A in Citi's history and it's continued into 2026. As Jane said, so far this year, we played a leading role in the 3 largest deals. That is a clear statement of our intent. Equity Capital Markets is up 70 basis points with 2 consecutive years in the top 5, and we still have much more room to grow in ECM. This will be a key area of focus. Debt capital markets is up 45 basis points. We have maintained Citi's long-standing leadership in investment grade while asserting our presence in leverage finance.

And it's the same story by client. Financial sponsors are up 135 basis points, our highest share in a decade, and we are up 200 basis points with our strategic clients. And the narrative continues by geography in North America, which is our core market, we are up 60 basis points, and we have plans to drive an intense focus on getting more share here in the U.S. Internationally, we are up 85 basis points with strong growth across the board. All good progress, but as Jane says, not a destination. We have excellent momentum and a strong pipeline, there is much more to come so where are we going? And how will we get there? We've reset the foundation and proven the model works. Now it's time to raise the bar and go after the immense opportunity in front of us. 3 pillars will define how we execute, exceptional talent, disciplined capital deployment, and above all, a serial winning mindset, all powered through One Citi.

That is how we will deliver against the priorities that will appear on the right-hand side of the page. First, scale in high-growth sectors, tech, health care, industrials, Roughly 2/3 of the investment banking fee pool resides here. Second, outperform in the U.S. We remain underpenetrated in our home market. Concrete steps are underway across banking to drive increased levels of revenue here in the U.S. which will also help further utilize our deferred tax asset. Third, lead with strategic advisory and financing. Our purpose is to be the trusted adviser to management the C-suite and the Board. When we lead with client mind share, wallet share will follow. Fourth, accelerate primacy with sponsors. In any given year, financial responses may represent a 1/4 to 1/3 of the investment banking fee pool, it's not just leverage finance.

We are capturing the entirety of the sponsored ecosystem all the way down to the portfolio company level across One Citi in a risk-aware and responsible way. And finally, expand our middle market footprint. We are partnering with middle market companies through every stage of growth. We see the middle market as a precious incubator for our future pipeline of clients. All of this will be primarily driven by talent. It's essential that we have best-in-class people driving our franchise forward. This slide shows how we are building for the future. Since 2022, the investment banking wallet grew from $79 million to $106 billion. Over the same period, as you can see, Citi share grew from 4% to 4.7%, and while running a far leaner team than our peers. As you can see, our gap to peers is about 100 managing directors, and we still grew share. That speaks to the quality and productivity of our people.

And frankly, it speaks to what this franchise is capable of when it's focused, finally tuned and aligned. But we are at a pivot point. To deliver on our ambition, we need to continue investing in talent deliberately and strategically. We've already begun since the start of '25, we have hired more than 60 managing directors across banking from 20 institutions across the street with approximately half of those hires here in the U.S. We are attracting the best. And we can get whoever we want. Going forward, quality of hires over quantity will be our focus. It's not just a numbers game. We are targeting a roughly 15% increase in managing director headcount, which will extend our product and coverage reach enhance productivity and ultimately drive increased wallet share.

Ours will be an innovative, transparent and performance-driven culture, expectations are clear we will measure and reward those who deliver at the end of the day, this business comes down to people and capital. Having covered people, I'll turn to capital. Capital is a key strategic asset. It is our raw material and should never be deployed out of habit or relationship inertia. We will always sweat our balance sheet and our capital continue to be deployed strategically for maximum One Citi impact. This will be guided by 4 principles. First, scale. Our $415 billion balance sheet gives us formidable heft and relevance. We will use it. we'll show up with creativity, flexibility and size. Our leadership positions in both the $54 billion Paramount bridge and the $16 million in the current bridge are proof points. Second, productivity. Our capital is now generating 20% more revenue per dollar committed compared to 2022.

And Capital allocation decisions are made with a strategic lens to ensure exceptional client outcomes while keeping in mind total return expectations. And by the way, that includes having honest conversations with clients about what those expectations are. Third, quality. Roughly 80% of our book is investment grade. We constantly stress test our portfolio and have managed effectively through all macro conditions. And finally, discipline. While the recent cycle has been somewhat benign, our NCL ratio of just 0.1% reflects prudent underwriting, and an uncompromising focus on book quality Above all, to drive our strategy forward we are embedding a serial winning mindset. This is incredibly important. It's predicated on 5 key elements. First, client mind share leads to wallet share. We're instilling clear ownership and accountability for every client.

The motto is to lead with creativity and deliver all of city always always with the client success as the goal. Second, we must focus on the entirety of the wallet opportunity. Our days of operating in silos are over. from M&A to deal contingent FX to cash management, to financing, to the escrow, the list goes on and gone are the days of city being easy to say no to we will earn and ask for all available business again and again, if necessary. Third, we're instilling a culture of accountability. We have clearly defined expectations and areas of responsibility. Bank productivity is closely scrutinized. Results are measured and positive client outcomes are what matter. Fourth, we are ingraining a corner store mindset. This entails relentless efficiency. We're ensuring maximum impact from every dollar of expense every dollar of balance sheet and every hour of human capital. Our teams will treat every resource as if it was their own.

And finally, embracing AI as a growth driver. AI appears on this slide because it's really about a mindset shift. Our teams at all levels must embrace it as a catalyst for growth. Those stuck in a Jurassic are at risk of being left behind. We will use the tools to disrupt ourselves, challenge convention, become more efficient and drive better client outcomes. This is being ingrained across the franchise. As we come to a close, let me talk about where we're investing and highlight our KPIs. Talent remains the linchpin of our strategy, as I discussed earlier. We will continue to invest across sectors, products and key geographies, doubling down on the U.S., U.K. and Western Europe, while nurturing our strengths in Latin America and Asia Pacific. Our other clinical investment is in next-generation technology.

As I noted a moment ago, we are deploying AI native tools that will enable us to work smarter, to be more productive and serve clients better. from city AI and the leading LLM to piloting application layer specialists such as heavier, we are putting the best tools in the hands of our teams. The goal is simple greater efficiency, smarter working, superior client outcomes. Our strategy and our investments will translate directly into the KPIs you see on the right-hand side of the page. We are targeting a greater than 6% share across investment banking overall, North America investment banking and financial sponsors, investment banking. While the progress won't always be linear, the momentum is building, and we will accelerate it. I'm confident about the path forward for banking.

We expect that the key priorities you see listed across the top of the page, together with strategic capital deployment, and disciplined expense management will elevate our ROTCE from 10% at the end of last year towards mid-teens in the near term and mid- to high teens in the medium term. We covered a lot of ground today, but I want to leave you with a clear message. Our franchise is exceptional. Our client relationships are deep. Our network is unmatched. Our talent is world-class, and our culture is changing. We exist to help our clients succeed to be the partner they turn to when the stakes are highest, when they need to move fast when they need someone who can show up anywhere in the world with conviction and capability. When we do that, we win. Clients are noticing, and they're rooting for us. Competitors are definitely feeling it.

And the league tables are beginning to reflect it. If it looks and feels like a different city, it's because it is. We have the balance sheet. We have the platform. We're growing the talent and we have the strategy. The opportunity ahead is immense and we will capture it. Thank you.

We will now take a 15-minute break. Thank you.

[Break]

Please welcome, Head of Wealth, Andrew Sieg.

Hello, everyone. It is great to be here. Now this is my first Investor Day as Head of Wealth. I joined Citi because it was clear to me that we had the ingredients to build one of the world's leading wealth managers and the commitment from Jane and the Board to make it happen. We are proud of our turnaround, and we're moving fast, as I like to say, the new Citi Speed.

I'm excited to share our vision and our plans today, and we're going to start with the basics. As you'll see on the slide, this is a distinctive and powerful wealth management firm, a global private bank, a scalable consumer wealth channel and a workplace offering through wealth at work. And this business has some standout attributes. 650 U.S. retail branches in six dynamic markets, 25% of the world's billionaires served through the Private Bank and a sizable footprint in Asia, the world's fastest-growing market. 30% of our revenue comes from the region.

Now with $1.3 trillion in total client balances, we have scale, but we want more. The key number right in the middle of the page, you heard it earlier, a $5 trillion office opportunity with existing clients. That's $5 trillion in investable assets belonging to clients who already bank with us and already trust us. When you think about it, yesterday's struggles to deepen wallet share equal today's massive opportunity to grow. This isn't a build or expansion story, and it is not an expensive bet on new client acquisition. We have the clients. Our challenge is to deepen the relationship by showing them what's possible when they entrust more of their financial life to Citi.

Today, this business is on the move, and our momentum is building. Now there's four key takeaways from this slide. On the top left, Revenue is growing and NIR has outpaced NII with a shift from transactional to fee-based investment revenue underway. In the center, efficiency is improving. Since 2023, 2,000 basis points of operating leverage, bringing our efficiency ratio down to 84%. On the top right, returns are rising. Revenue growth, expense control and balance sheet discipline have driven ROTCE from negative in 2023 to nearly 11% in the first quarter. Now that's a lot of progress. But candidly, we're only about midway to what a strong wealth business should look like.

And finally, in the bottom center, nearly $90 billion of net new investment assets in 2 years. That's an 8% organic growth rate on investment balances, and that's among the best of our peers. Now Jane and I are impatient for this to be one of the largest wealth businesses in the world. And while we know that will take a while, there is no reason we can't be one of the fastest-growing wealth businesses right now, and that's what we are.

Now we have real progress. And in critically, we have a leadership team in the seats that knows what great looks like in wealth management. It's truly essential. Now as all of you know, this required a significant reset beginning in 2023. You see it summarized on the slide here. When I joined, we implemented some major changes, just beginning in the upper left. We simplified and sharpened our focus. We exited noncore businesses like trust and proprietary asset management. We reined in the number of initiatives, our mantra, no hobbies. And we reduced headcount by 20% and flattened our structure as the leadership team was doing across Citi. We also anchored our business to global product and functional centers to ensure we bring the best of Citi Wealth to our clients all around the world.

Second, we elevated our focus on investments. In Wealth Management, that is the key to stronger client relationships, and we aligned to a single North Star KPI, net new investment assets. It is the clearest measure of the value we're delivering to clients.

Third, as you'll see on the lower left, we put our weight behind two powerful scaled growth engines. We've integrated our U.S. retail bank into wealth. Now remember, in recent years, this business was unprofitable and dragged on returns. But the team has done some tremendous work to address the headwinds weighing them down, and we're already seeing improved performance.

The realignment we announced last year was designed to accelerate the deepening of relationships with affluent and high net worth clients and drive that growth of our U.S. Citigold franchise. I'm going to speak more about that later. We've also been better connecting our private bank into Citi's unmatched global institutional network. You've heard it mentioned several times. We are fully committed to showing clients the power of One Citi, what [ Viz ] and Andy and Shamir and Pam and I can collectively do for them. And then from a wealth perspective, we're securing net flows in the process.

And lastly, we began the journey to modernize our platforms and improve the client experience. Fragmented data held this business back for too long. It frustrated clients and it frustrated our people. We've embraced the firm's mantra. We have got to be modern and simple, and we're accelerating the pace by working with world-class partners like Palantir and Google.

Now as we look ahead, in Wealth Management, it is clear. Our clients are going to judge us across four dimensions, and we need to ensure our vision is defined by these same four dimensions. Advisory. They expect a trusted adviser that will bring to bear the best products in the market in service of their goals. Holistic. They expect us to see the big picture of their financial life across their balance sheet and across generations. Seamless. We have to be as responsive, proactive and tuned in as they are. In simple terms, we've got to be very easy to do business with. And then global. Being global in this business is nonnegotiable. Our clients are the world's change makers.

Their dreams, businesses and families are distinctly global. They want and they need an adviser that sees the world like they do. So there's a lot to do, but I am very confident we can rise to the challenge by simplifying our priorities and driving relentless execution. How we're going to build this business? Well, it really boils down to a focus on a few key areas: products, coverage and platforms. We're going to start with products. Now we aren't unique in wealth management in offering investments, loans and deposits. But we do have an exceptionally clear view of how they work together to serve clients. Each product reinforces the other, and we don't let individual product P&Ls get in the way. As you see on the right, we're making it even more compelling for clients to grow with us by building out relationship-based pricing. And over time, this will drive results.

Now already, client investment assets as a percentage of total client balances have grown from 42% in 2022 to 52% today. And we see a path to the high 50s in the near term. Now let's double-click on the core here, our investments offering. It is unrecognizable compared to a few years ago. Our CIO, Kate Moore and her team are delivering differentiated insights, and they fundamentally changed how we see the world as an investment adviser. And by the way, they're working differently.

By layering AgenticAI directly on to Citi's proprietary research and models, they've created a step change in how quickly we move from investment thesis to portfolio construction and the quality of what we deliver to clients reflects this. They are deepening the research, sharpening the analysis and turning up the volume. In the middle of the slide, you'll see that Keith Glenfield and our Investment Solutions team, they are resetting our core investment product offerings and the platforms.

In the process, they're driving on some historic Citi strengths like world-class capital markets capabilities and a very strong alternatives offering. But they're focused on how do we ensure we build a market-leading open architecture core in our platform. Now to support this, they have energized our asset manager partnerships, and they've turned a subscale proprietary asset management offering into a one-of-its-kind global partnership with the world's leading asset manager, BlackRock.

And as you'll see on the right, we're ensuring we have the specialist support and the product structure to deliver bespoke solutions to our clients at scale in the context of their goals and priorities. We just announced a very exciting partnership with Advyzon. Together, we're going to launch a fully multicurrency, multi-jurisdictional UMA this fall. It's going to be best-in-class. Now you bring together everything on this slide. Insights, products, platforms, delivery capabilities, getting stronger day by day. And the formula is working. It's resulted in 17% annual growth in investment revenue per adviser, and we expect that trend to continue in the high single digits through the near term.

Now let's turn to our second priority because the fact is strong product offerings alone don't win. You have to deliver them to the right clients in the right way. And we understand one size does not fit all. Obviously, think about our business, a family office in Singapore has very different needs from affluent clients in the U.S.

And that's why we have four distinct wealth coverage models, Citi Private Bank, U.S. Citigold, International Citigold and Wealth at Work. Each is purpose-built for the clients it serves. Now across these models, we have 2,300 advisers serving clients from affluent all the way through ultra-high net worth with coverage tailored specifically to their complexity, jurisdiction and goals. Within each business, we have clear expectations for adviser productivity. Therefore, when we meet them, we're in position to responsibly grow our frontline teams.

Now let's look more closely at Citi Private Bank. This is an extraordinary franchise. We have the honor of working with so many of the world's true change makers. I recently spent a few days in Mexico City. Now this is a country where we work with nearly 3/4 of the nation's billionaires. From our conversations, it's clear they value our global coverage, our sophistication across credit, wealth structuring and family office governance. They appreciate our network of booking centers and the flexibility that affords, the direct access to our institutional markets platforms and the integrated dialogue that we can create across their family, business and philanthropic priorities.

Clients like these are small in number but they represent a large and fast-growing market. Ultra-high net worth cross-border wealth is forecasted to increase by $6 trillion or 62% through 2030. Now that's not simply a tailwind. That's a structural shift. And the global platform we've built is perfectly suited for it. Think about what that looks like in practice. The average Citi Private Bank client has a net worth of over $400 million.

Now that could be a family that made its fortune in Hong Kong, has children living in the U.S., runs a business in Dubai and maybe today is buying real estate in Portugal. For clients like this, our private bank isn't just a good option. Quite often, we're the only bank that can provide seamless global coverage and solutions across this range of needs. And -- One Citi plays a pivotal role. Last year, we saw over $13 billion in NNIA as a direct result of referrals from our banking, markets and services colleagues. And those cross-firm synergies, they're accelerating.

In Q1 of this year, One Citi Referrals were up another 40% year-on-year. Those institutional links, together with a stronger focus on investment advisory, have driven an increase in NNIA per adviser of 1.7x since 2023. Now that's the power of connecting the private bank to Citi's incredible global network, and it's the power of One Citi. We have an elite team in the private bank, and we're investing in it.

Today, we have roughly 400 bankers and 200 investment counselors worldwide with plans to grow their ranks by more than 100 in the near term. And this will enable us to continue fueling growth in key markets. Now why the private bank sits globally at the top of the client continuum, our single largest opportunity is here at home in our storied retail bank. In fact, a full $3 trillion of the total $5 trillion office opportunity is represented by U.S. retail banking and Citigold clients. That's why it is front and center here on the slide.

Now the Citibank franchise is unique. It is focused. It's in 6 highly affluent urban markets. Now as a retail bank, we are deeply engaged in our communities. We reach out to all. But the Citibank brand and our offering disproportionately attracts affluent and high net worth clients. Our affluent base is 1.6x larger than the national average, which is a key reason we are #1 in deposits per branch. In fact, for 9 years in a row, we've been named the best bank for high net worth clients. And as you see noted across the bottom of the page, simplified banking has been a major success since its launch in 2022.

We've upgraded roughly 325,000 clients from retail banking to Citigold over the last few years. And when those clients receive dedicated Citigold Wealth advisory coverage, we've seen an average increase in investment revenue of nearly 2.5x. Now that's strong, but we can do even more. With the retail bank realigning to wealth, Kate Luft and I are focused on making the most of this massive growth opportunity. And we know to get that done, we're going to need to raise our game even further. That's why we're planning significant investments in Citibank across four areas.

First, the branches themselves, renovations. We're going to refresh our network and maximize space for advisory interaction. With NextGen teller and workstation technology, we're reimagining the Citibank branch of the future, and we're ensuring it's designed for client meetings and consultations as well as efficient transactions.

Second, we're elevating service quality and expanding client coverage. We'll add over 400 client advisers and personal bankers. More advisers means deeper relationships and more investment conversations. Third, you'll see a dramatically increased focus on small business, the economic bedrock of the communities we serve and where Citi's commercial bonafide is hold very special appeal. We're going to add over 200 small business advisers and refresh our small business product suite.

And fourth, technology. Our systems were outdated and fragmented, and we needed to upgrade and enhance our online banking and investment offerings. We've made and we're continuing to make significant investments to change that. And our strategy is not just to catch up, but to leapfrog ahead. We're closing gaps today while seizing the moment to set new standards for innovation.

Now if you think back, 15 years ago, Citi pioneered the ATM, a bold bet on technology. In fact, as some of you may know, that inspired the tagline, “The Citi Never Sleeps”. That boldness remains in our DNA, and we intend to reassert it. Here's a great example. A few weeks ago, we unveiled CitiSky, an AI-powered member of the Citi Wealth team, built with Google DeepMind and Google Cloud. Now CitiSky is more than just a new digital tool. It provides our clients with a new intelligence layer, conversational, actionable and secure. CitiSky will change the model of wealth management for clients and make our advisers and RMs vastly more productive.

Let's take a look at what CitiSky will do.

[Presentation]

It is stepping into the future, incredibly exciting. Now this is very powerful technology. Last month, Google Cloud invited us to unveil CitiSky at its annual conference, 32,000 attendees. We demonstrated how we're using Google's tech, the video, the voice and Gemini-driven intelligence in new and innovative ways. But for me, what was even more telling were the side conversations with the attendees. There was a common theme. They told me, CitiSky will change my financial life by giving me the opportunity to think and ask questions about my finances when I have the time, not just when banks are open.

They see this as a new channel. It is a major opportunity for us to help them, and it is a force multiplier for our business and our advisers. CitiSky is going to begin rolling out this summer to Citigold clients in the U.S. with a broader introduction to follow. Now CitiSky is only the most recent and visible element of our new technology platform. Think of it as four layers, each building on the other. At the foundation, secure, trusted data, unified and organized in a way that allows us to truly know our clients, anticipate their needs and act on them in real time. That's the layer that makes everything else possible.

Above that, core capabilities, products, analytics, risk and controls. This is the institutional-grade infrastructure that fuels every client interaction. Then AI orchestration, intelligently routing information and triggering actions in real time so that the right insights reach the right person at the right moment. We're embedding AI seamlessly across our platform and partnering with true leaders like Google and Palantir to make it happen. And at the top, client and adviser experiences, CitiSky, our online and mobile apps, our adviser workstations, all powered by the platform and the data capabilities underpinning them. The result, an autonomous intelligence system that enables personalized insight for every client 24/7 and at scale.

Now let's bring it home. A quick review of our investments. First, expanding the number of bankers and advisers across Private Bank and Citigold. Second, elevating the branch network, so our branches are modernized and advisory first and reinventing the client experience through CitiSky and a broader AI-powered platform. Our near-term financial targets are based on these moves, along with the day-to-day focus on client service, productivity and operating discipline. And with these priorities at play, we're confident in our ability to produce high single-digit organic NNIA growth and mid-single-digit deposit and loan growth.

Now let's take a look at where this will take our returns. We've already gone from a negative ROTCE in 2023 to 8% last year and nearly 11% in the first quarter of this year. The balanced growth on the prior slide is expected to drive low teens revenue growth in the near term, which together with continued expense discipline, will lead to a pretax margin of 25% to 30%. This positions us to deliver 15% to 20% ROTCE in the near term and above 20% in the medium term. This is beginning to look like the kind of returns that shareholders expect from this type of business.

Now there is incredible value in the Citi brand and in this wealth franchise. It needed to be reset, and this team got it done. We are proud of how far we've come, and we are even more excited about the future. Thank you all very much.

[Presentation]

Please welcome, Head of Consumer Cards, Pam Habner.

Good morning. I'm Pam Habner, and I'm delighted to be here today to talk about Citi's consumer card business. I joined the firm in 2020 after a long career in financial services because I believe in the Citi brand and the potential of the firm.

I led the branded cards business until earlier this year when I became the Head of the combined U.S. Consumer Cards. Our CFO, Gonzalo Luchetti, previously led U.S. Personal Banking. And thanks to his leadership, USCC is a business with a solid foundation. We have scale, strong top line growth, and we operate near target returns. And now we have the opportunity to take the business to the next level by accelerating investments in growth. Today, I'll share our progress, proven business model and how we're playing to win in an ever-changing market.

Let's start with an overview of U.S. consumer cards. Our mission is to win the hearts, minds and wallets of U.S. consumers. And as you can see from the slide, we offer three product lines. Our primary focus is general purpose cards with a range of Citi branded and co-branded cards. These products are issued on major networks like Mastercard and Visa. We also offer private label cards for consumers to use exclusively in store.

But as you may know, the demand for private label cards has been declining over time. That's why we reduced our exposure and increased investments in co-brand. Today, most of our private label partners like Macy's and Best Buy offer co-brand cards as well. We also offer digital installment loans. Now this is a relatively new business for Citi, but it's gaining traction as more customers look for buy now, pay later options.

We're the #3 card issuer with 14% of loans and over 70 million customers. That's about one in four U.S. adults with a Citi card. And our base of customers is growing. Last year alone, we acquired 13 million new accounts. Many of those came through partnerships with 12 marquee brands.

Now let's take a look at our financial performance. We'll start with customer drivers on the left. The data shows that our focus on general purpose is working. General purpose represents the majority of acquisitions and 92% of our spend. This helped us deliver a record $626 billion in total spend last year and led to strong revenue and returns. In fact, revenue has grown at a healthy 8.4%, reaching $18.3 billion with a ROTCE of 22%. We've delivered on every one of our Investor Day commitments and set the business up for sustained and profitable growth.

Turning to the next slide. We often get questions about our credit losses. So let's dig a bit deeper into this topic. Strong risk discipline has allowed us to grow loans while stabilizing loss rates now at around 4%. So how are we building resilience through the cycle?

First, we shifted the mix of loans to general purpose with lower loss rates and acquired higher FICO customers. Second, we stayed within our risk appetite and maintained prudent reserves. Today, reserves are at 8% as we prepare for potential economic headwinds. Third, we negotiate terms in our partner agreements to share in downside risk through the cycle. Now NCL is slightly higher today than pre-pandemic, but that's largely due to macro factors like higher unemployment.

Looking ahead, we're getting even smarter. We're leveraging data and AI to elevate our models and modernize risk processes. Since our last Investor Day, we've made significant progress on our strategic priorities. First, we committed to innovating across products, and we delivered. We refreshed and launched 18 products. We also reentered the premium card space. And Strata Elite is key to attracting affluent customers and deepening engagement with our wealth clients. We also elevated the customer experience by upgrading more than 10 core platforms. And we improved servicing with the help of AI in all of our call centers.

We've expanded key partnerships, signing six new agreements often with improved terms. And we're especially proud of our expanded partnerships with American and Costco. And as I mentioned earlier, we pivoted our partner cards towards general purpose. In fact, we've exited 12 private label programs, and we grew general purpose to 82% of loans. The upside potential is significant. Citi co-brand customers spend 8x more and carry 2x higher balances than private label customers.

Going forward, we'll build on this momentum by leveraging our proven business model. We call this the USCC flywheel. The flywheel starts with a holistic suite of competitive products, attracting a strong and growing base of high-quality customers, enabling us to partner with marquee brands to power Citi's commerce ecosystem, which deepens loyalty with both customers and merchants.

Our business generates scale economics and strong margins, so we can keep investing in innovative products, partnerships and platform. And so the flywheel keeps turning to create a virtuous cycle of growth. On the right, we are fortunate to operate in a large and growing market. The industry is expected to grow at around 5% in the coming years. And our core competencies, these are assets we've built over decades, create a strategic moat in a highly competitive market.

Now let's spend some time discussing each element of the business model. We'll start with products. We're incredibly proud of the suite of cards we've designed to serve a range of customers' needs. Customers have responded and the industry has taken notice. Since 2025 alone, we've earned more than 80 best of accolades. Newsweek listed Citi Strata Elite as a best new card and the PointsSky named Double Cash as the Cashback Credit Card of the Year, and the list goes on. While we appreciate the recognition, what we really care about are results. And investing in product innovation has been a key driver of growth.

Last year, when we introduced the Strata family, we saw a 38% increase in new accounts. That's a big number. When we became the sole card issuer for American and introduced a new mid-fee card, accounts grew 18%. And just last month, we successfully converted the Barclays co-brand, adding millions of high-quality customers. We saw similar results when we extended our Costco partnership. So the pattern is clear, and you can expect to see more of the same in the coming years.

Now let's talk about my favorite topic, our customers. We're pleased to see our innovative products have attracted high-quality customers. Over the past 4 years, we've grown our base of affluent and younger customers, deepened engagement and built long-lasting relationships. There are many proof points on this slide, so I won't read all of them, but I would draw your attention to the chart on the upper right.

This shows our acquisition engine isn't just growing accounts, it's compounding value. Since 2022, we've increased lifetime value of new accounts by 20% while maintaining retention at 98%. With the help of AI, we're building even more sophisticated tools, driving towards hyper-personalized offers to take our marketing to the next level.

Going back to our mission to win the hearts, minds and wallets of our customers, we've been investing in a lifestyle platform with compelling rewards, travel, dining and shopping benefits. As a result, these programs have grown dramatically. Just take a look at the travel category. In 2023, we partnered with Booking.com to offer a whole new travel portal. We created a premium hotel collection and added hundreds of travel partners. As a result, spend on the program is up 32% and customers who use Citi Travel spend 7x more. We see similar trends across categories. Customers who redeem thank you Rewards spend nearly 10x more. These are clear signs of enduring engagement. So to keep the platform fresh, we'll keep adding benefits and expanding categories.

Now let's turn our attention to our partners. We're proud of the relationships we've built with 12 strategic partners, including 8 of the top 50 retailers in the U.S. These include brands like -- the Home Depot, American, Costco, Macy's and more. And it's worth noting that most of these partners are also very important corporate clients. The mutual benefits of these relationships are real.

For partners, we deliver share shift with cardholders spending 3x more than regular shoppers in their stores. For Citi, partners offer access to a loyal customer base through efficient partner channels. The key to success here is growing together. This win-win formula has led to long-lasting relationships with an average tenure of 16 years. It's pretty incredible to think that American Airlines is approaching 4 decades with Citi and AT&T nearly 3 decades.

Looking ahead, we'll add new partners and integrate more deeply into their digital channels with a broader set of Citi payment options. Together, our lifestyle and payment platforms create a powerful commerce ecosystem. Customers who carry Citi cards enjoy a range of benefits as well as payment flexibility and the backing of our service and protections.

On the other side, partners benefit from a powerful marketing engine, generating incremental sales, customer insights, shared economics and competitive network terms. The value to Citi is deeper loyalty and access to merchant-funded benefits to enhance our products and reduce our dependency on expensive points-based rewards. Now we'll move into the last element of the flywheel, driving scale economics. Over time, we've invested in transforming key processes to reduce the cost to serve while improving the client experience. Digital, data, machine learning and AI have all been enabling this transformation. To bring our strategy to life, we have two case studies.

Let's take a look at customer service. Digital adoption has grown 18%, while the cost per account has declined 12%. The impact on collections is even more dramatic, with digital collections up 21%, while cost per delinquent account is down 22% -- during the same time frame, our digital Net Promoter Score has risen 5 points. This is a key marker of customer satisfaction.

The savings we generate are used to improve efficiency and also reinvest in growth. This is how scale becomes a strategic advantage. And this is also where AI takes center stage. We've been rapidly embedding AI across every aspect of the card business, and it's been a game changer. This isn't just about playing defense and reducing expense. It's about playing offense, leveraging AI to win with customers and unlock top line growth. Early focus areas are on track to deliver meaningful results this year.

I'll give you some examples. In risk, we've been using machine learning for decades. Now we're deploying new AI models, increasing approval rates by 100 basis points. In controls, we're using AI to build a smarter smoke detector. This cuts time by 95%, so we can resolve customer issues before they spread. In customer service, we've used Gen AI to improve our IVR, and we rolled out Agent Assist. This reduces call handle time by 60 seconds. Technology. Developers are managing teams of AI coding agents. That's driving productivity gains up to 40% in software development time.

And lastly, in marketing, we're using AI for personalization and generative search optimization helps Citi cards show up when customers turn to AI for recommendation. This is helping us grow digital sales by 25%. AI is quickly becoming part of our DNA as we prepare for the next frontier, Agentic commerce. We can envision a future where a customer's personal AI assistant can advise and execute transactions on their behalf.

Just think about it. An AI agent could automatically rebook a canceled flight and arrange transportation, paying with the card that offers the best travel benefits and protections. As Agentic commerce evolves, our mission is clear, to work with industry players to ensure AI agents keep city cards top of wallet to transact safely and securely on behalf of our customers.

Now let's bring all the pieces together. We are a scale player confident in the future of U.S. consumer cards. We plan to accelerate investments in product innovation, grow acquisitions with advanced marketing, expand key partnerships and deepen loyalty with our commerce ecosystem. We'll sustain scale economics by continuing to deploy AI across the business.

You can expect to see an increase in the mix of general purpose, total loans and revenue growing at mid-single digits and through-the-cycle returns in the low 20s. We have momentum, a proven business model, an incredibly talented team with a passion to win and the investments to fuel growth well into the future. Thank you for your time today.

Please welcome Chief Financial Officer, Gonzalo Luchetti.

Well, thank you all for being here today and for the confidence you have put in our company to this point. It means a lot to us, and we take the responsibility very seriously. I'm Gonzalo Luchetti, Citi's Chief Financial Officer.

You've heard from Jane and our business heads. My job today is going to be to pull this all together for you and walk you through how we will deliver sustainable, higher returns. I worked across several regions, countries, businesses and functions at Citi for 2 decades now, and it's been a very rewarding journey. For me, it is all about driving results, holding ourselves accountable and acting with ownership, responsibility and integrity.

All right. After sitting down for 3 hours and absorbing information, I have a price. 19 more slides and exactly 273 more numbers. But before I begin, I want to say that my confidence in our firm is wholly grounded in three components.

First, strategic clarity on the path forward. We focus the firm on five core businesses where we have the right to win. Second, the progress we've achieved thus far and our forward momentum. And third, our intense focus on operational and financial performance executed with discipline and rigor. Now I will lay out the building blocks that underpin our revenue growth, our efficiency ratio target and the path to higher returns. As a result of our progress and improved business performance, we are confident that we will deliver on the 10% to 11% return target for 2026.

In the near term, we expect to be within 11% to 13% ROTCE range ex notable items for both '27 and '28. And we see a clear path to reach 14% to 15% ROTCE over the medium term once we hit steady state, having fully eliminated our legacy portfolio and operating with only five interconnected businesses. Now the hard work of restructuring is nearly complete. We are now shifting more resources towards improvement in business performance and greater efficiencies. We know driving sustainably higher returns is achievable because we're already seeing the early proof points in our recent performance. Let me show you how we did on the next slide. Here, we have laid out an overview of the financial performance of our firm and our performance since 2022.

Turning to the top left side of the page, you can see we've delivered consistent revenue growth as well as marked improvement in our RWA efficiency. This is a direct result of the execution of our strategy, and it's about the concentration on client engagement and elevating our level of accountability across the firm.

On the right, you'll see how our investments in transformation, technology and functions made concurrently with business investments that drove the top line growth have improved our efficiency ratio. We've been able to drive growth, invest heavily in transformation and increase efficiency at the same time. Driving that positive operating leverage sustainably is what we're focused on. I'm also pleased to note that we started to show improvement in our return trajectory in the last couple of years and the first quarter of 2026 as well.

Yet we know we have more work to do. We remain focused on keeping our momentum and driving disciplined execution. In short, to me, we've proven capable of handling multiple strategic priorities, and I am confident that we will sustain our execution focus and drive and deliver on our commitments. Now this slide demonstrates the performance of each of the five businesses and the KPIs that have driven our ex legacy revenue growth of $13.3 billion since 2022, a CAGR of 6%. That's solid progress.

That improved performance is anchored by strong client-driven activity, a direct result of our intense commercial focus, strategic investments and execution urgency and discipline. This is the city you're investing in, where every one of our five core businesses is contributing to growth and returns.

As we talked about previously, we strategically invested in technology and our transformation initiatives in order to modernize our infrastructure, automate our risk and controls and enhance our data. As you've heard from Jane, we have rebuilt the engine. At the same time, we continue to invest across our businesses in talent, technology innovation and acquisition marketing. And we were able to improve our efficiency ratio from 68% in 2022 to 63% ex notable items in 2025.

Now what I want our investors to understand is that our approach to expense management is to maintain strong cost discipline on a tactical basis and continue to drive structural efficiencies through tech and AI automation. This is all in order to enable targeted strategic investments in our core businesses to consistently drive higher returns. That's the key takeaway here.

Now so far, I've mostly focused on performance, growth and efficiency. Let's move to the durability of our engine and results. First, I'll turn to our credit profile and risk management framework. These play a critical role in supporting sustainable returns. I want to highlight how our firm operates with a robust risk framework and a strategic and deliberate client-centric balance sheet deployment approach. You'll see here that our institutional portfolio includes predominantly investment-grade corporate loans. This is underpinned by a multinational client base, which are typically multiproduct, multi-country and long-tenured relationships.

On the consumer side, we are carefully managing a stable prime U.S. consumer portfolio with 85% of FICO scores greater than 660 -- our credit strength in the consumer segment is rooted in a robust risk framework, which includes frequent stress testing, digitized collections and an advanced AI and machine learning models.

Our holistic approach to our risk framework puts the firm very well placed to navigate a diverse set of economic environments, and this is a discipline we will maintain. Shifting our focus to the balance sheet. We are a source of strength for our clients and for the financial system, and we have proven this through several market dislocations and disruptive events.

As you can see on the left here, we have a diverse set of funding sources in our $1.4 trillion deposit base. This is anchored by corporate clients with 80% of deposits in operating accounts. And as you heard from Andy, we also have a significant wealth customer deposit base that spans multiple business segments and geographies. We have over $1 trillion of total available liquidity resources and an LCR of 115%. And we are delivering high-quality loan growth and maintaining strict return discipline while optimizing corporate lending and wealth portfolios.

Looking at the right side of the slide, our standardized CET1 ratio stood at 13.2% as of the fourth quarter of 2025, which was 160 basis points above our CET1 requirement. As of the first quarter of 2026, our CET1 was 12.7%, and we expect to remain around our target of 12.6% CET1 for the balance of the year. In the past couple of years, we've seen our SCV come down to 3.6% in 2025 from 4.3% in 2023. This is because we simplified our firm and grew PPNR by $6 billion, which has made us more resilient in stress.

On the bottom right, we show that since 2022, we've returned over $40 billion of capital to shareholders through a mix of common dividends and buybacks with over $17 billion of capital returned in 2025 alone. This demonstrates our unwavering commitment to drive shareholder value. Now what I'd like you to take away from this and the prior page is that our strength across asset quality, controls, balance sheet, liquidity and capital provide the bedrock that is essential for sustainable returns improvement.

Now let's look at the path forward. Turning to 2026. Let me make this easier for everyone looking at this page. We are confident that we will do what we said we would do. That means we expect to deliver our 10% to 11% return target. We also expect to deliver NII ex market growth of 5% to 6% year-on-year. We expect to see fee growth in services, banking and wealth. An efficiency ratio will be around 60%, driven by our commitment to managing expenses with discipline while investing in our businesses.

As you have seen in the first quarter, we have strong client-driven momentum behind us and we'll maintain expense and capital discipline. Without a doubt, we are focused on execution, and we will deliver on our commitments. Let's move on to the near-term path covering 2027 and 2028. This slide outlines the key building blocks of higher returns in the near term.

This trajectory is firmly grounded in three elements: First, revenue growth driven by client activity; second, continuous efficiency gains, creating capacity to reinvest in our businesses. And third, capital productivity through the utilization of DTA driven by higher U.S. earnings and efficiently deploying our RWA. This enables us to reach our objectives without having to rely on perfect conditions. That gives us confidence in our ability to deliver in a range of environments. I'll demonstrate how each of these mutually reinforcing drivers will elevate our performance beyond 2026 and into sustainable higher returns throughout the remainder of the presentation.

Now this slide shows our first key driver. the heart of our operation, our businesses. We are leveraging our competitive advantages and strong returns in services and cards while strategically scaling our equities, investment banking and wealth franchises. You heard from our business heads, but let me quickly pull it together where the momentum is coming from in each of our businesses.

Let me start with services, which is continuously innovating and investing in our global platform to acquire and deepen relationships and drive increased fee revenue. Markets aims to strengthen our leading fixed income franchise by growing financing and securitization and scaling our equities business.

Banking is targeting high-growth sectors and financial sponsors, fueling North American growth through strategic initiatives and cross-business synergies. Wealth is focused on growing investment penetration across the business and on being a source of stable deposit growth. And cards as a top 3 issuer in the U.S. is growing general purpose cards via digital marketing, partnerships and innovation in order to enhance loyalty and engagement. With those strategies in place and momentum underway across our businesses, we continue our focus on execution.

Now I really want to emphasize that looking at the contributions of the businesses on a stand-alone basis does not tell the full story. The real value is in how these businesses connect. The powerful client capability, cost and balance sheet synergies across our businesses create a compounding effect that is incredibly valuable.

This spans the multi-business corporate clients and wealth clients accessing institutional grade resources. It includes leveraging customer and cost synergies between cards and wealth. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that integration is a core source of strength, diversification and resilience. Together, we expect to continue to deliver a revenue CAGR of mid-single digits over the near term.

Now in order to realize this continued growth trajectory, we have to invest. Let me show you how we plan to do that on the following page. Building on the strategies we just discussed and the momentum underway, this slide outlines our plan to deploy an incremental $5 billion of strategic investments across our businesses over the near term. These are targeted investments with clear return expectations focused on areas where we're already seeing momentum. This is a significant commitment and will be largely self-funded through structural efficiency savings.

As you can see, this funding will be distributed among several areas such as payments and trading, increased marketing for card acquisitions, strategic hiring in banking and wealth and physical branch refreshes. These investments are vital for sustained growth and long-term success. Now on this slide, you can also see two important elements that will enable additional client-driven growth in the near term. First, as we have invested in modernizing our infrastructure through the transformation, we expect our run-the-bank component to reduce, providing greater capacity for change the bank technology spend.

In addition, as we near completion of our transformation programs, that change the bank spend component will also become increasingly more business-driven. And on the right, you can see the impact we expect AI to have on the productivity of that change the bank spend in the coming years, allowing us to get more for every dollar.

So in totality, technology spend in the near term will be more and more geared towards supporting business growth and more and more productive. We are committed to funding our strategic vision with discipline, and we are holding ourselves fully accountable to ensure our investments maximize long-term shareholder value. A significant part of maintaining that discipline is how we fund these investments.

This slide shows our second key driver, which is how continued efficiency gains are creating capacity to increase business investment while supporting volume and other growth-related revenues. I want to start by making it clear that our efficiency improvements are not about short-term cuts. They are about driving structural efficiencies that create sustainable capacity. We demonstrated for 2 years in a row that we can improve our operating efficiency and we expect to continue on that trajectory this year.

On the left side of the slide, you'll see our efficiency ratio walk from 63% in 2025 ex notable items, which is down from 68% in 2022, lowering to about 60% this year as we previously guided. This culminates in a ratio of about 55% to 60% in the near term. And this will be driven by continued reduction of transformation expenses and stranded costs related to the divestitures.

We will also continue to achieve productivity savings from past investments and efficiencies in functional and operational expenses. This will happen primarily through technology automation and AI-driven process reengineering. Now this slide shows the sources of funding for our growth investments. This includes the role of AI, which presents an opportunity to drive end-to-end process automation. Diving a little deeper into costs on the slide, the 3 cost areas that are coming down are stranded costs, transformation expenses and functional and operational expenses.

Stranded cost reduction will come down materially from $1.3 billion in 2025 to almost 0 by 2028, a meaningful reduction, and you have already seen the progress in our first quarter 2026 results. Transformation expenses reached a peak of $3.3 billion in 2025, $1.6 billion of which sits in Corporate and Other, which is the portion we expect to roll off by 2028, and we have already started seeing those come down as we reach completion of our programs. As I noted on the last slide, our past investments, combined with those we are making in AI and technology allow us to drive additional efficiencies in our functional and operational expenses and the remaining transformation expenses that sit in the businesses.

We have defined task forces with clear objectives, milestones and resources in order to ensure those structural saves are fully realized. Essentially, over the next few years, our expense base will continue to shift to having more investments going into the businesses and in technology and AI. Importantly, this approach will allow us to scale and enhance our competitive advantages.

Now on to the third and final driver of our improved returns in the near term, which is capital productivity. On the left, you can see exactly how the capital stack is evolving. Continued investment in our U.S. businesses is expected to improve U.S. profitability and accelerate DTA reduction. This helped us close the gap between TCE and CET1, and this decrease will show up in capital reduction in Corporate and Other.

As my colleagues noted during their presentations, the drivers of earnings growth in North America are banking, notably in our financial sponsor coverage and the commercial bank, which you heard from Biz, Retail Banking Citigold and the Private Bank in wealth, through the focus on non deposits in TTS as well as increased client activity in Investor Services and Securities services overall. And of course, through our U.S. consumer cards franchise, which has shown improved returns and in which we continue to invest for additional growth.

Over the forecast horizon, we're assuming a 13.1% CET1 ratio starting in 2028. We expect our growth to push us to a 4% GSIB under the current rules, and our SCB remains at 3.6%. And while we do expect capital tailwinds, we have not included them as contributors to our target commitments. These tailwinds include a lower SCB as our PPNR continues to grow and we execute our strategy as well as the changes that are expected based on capital NPRs.

Now turning to our capital priorities. I'll start by giving you the key elements of our approach. Over multiple years, we have been positioning the firm to be agile and a continued source of resilience for our clients in multiple weather patterns. We look to deploy capital to drive return accretive growth across our businesses, while at the same time, returning capital to shareholders.

In the first quarter of 2026, underscored by both our earnings power and the closing of the Russia exit, we demonstrated this framework at work. We supported a strong quarter in Markets and Banking as well as the largest quarterly buyback level of $6.3 billion. The latter put us very close to completing the $20 billion buyback program that we announced last year. Today, we are excited to announce a new buyback program for $30 billion. This reflects both our earnings power and our confidence in the trajectory of our business, and we remain committed to returning capital as part of our total shareholder returns.

With that context on capital generation and deployment, let's turn our attention to the medium-term return outlook. The strategic actions we have taken over the past several years have materially changed the starting point of the firm. This allows us to focus and invest in our 5 core businesses. I've seen firsthand how these shifts have energized our teams and sharpened our vision for the future. And that, to me, is very inspiring.

Now this slide bridges our returns from where we are today to where we're headed, moving from our 11% to 13% near-term return profile toward our medium-term ROTCE objective of 14% to 15%. The first contributor is continued improvement in the core businesses as we drive revenue growth while maintaining cost discipline and a continuous focus on productivity. The second contributor is a steady-state corporate other, where transformation costs have rolled off, legacy franchise exits have been completed and we drive additional DTA utilization over time.

We expect the efficiency ratio to advance from our target of around 60% for 2026 to below 55%, driven by continued expense discipline, coupled with top line revenue growth. Taken together, these actions support a sustainable 14% to 15% ROTCE in the medium term.

Now on this slide, you can see in greater detail the 2 contributors that I just mentioned. Starting on the left, with continued business improvement, our medium-term targets rely on services staying in the mid-20s RoTCE, markets driving towards 13% and above, banking at mid- to high teens, wealth moving above 20% and cards staying in the low end of the 20s. This is in addition to the continued normalization of the capital in Corporate/Other, with most of it coming from additional DTA reduction, whose drivers are explained in detail earlier.

Now let me be clear, this does not require a heroic performance, just disciplined execution of the plan already underway. Getting to the high end of those targets, along with the progress in Corporate and Other will get us to our medium-term targets. Now as a reminder, for the purposes of this medium-term walk, we assumed a CET1 target of 13.1%, and we have not assumed any benefit from the capital NPRs or improving SCB due to the PPNR growth. Put simply, we know our goal, and we have a well-defined attainable plan to reach it.

Now with all due respect to my partner, Andy Morton. And despite the fact that I'm really excited about the stability of our markets revenues, believe me, I really hope that this is your favorite slide of the whole day because for us, it is all about sustainable, higher returns, if you haven't heard me say that a few times already. Now to put it all together, our 2-phase strategy combines 3 mutually reinforcing drivers: client-driven growth, efficiencies that fund reinvestment and capital productivity. This is all in order to accelerate return improvement across all 3 horizons. Every time frame has both an ROTCE and an efficiency ratio target.

In 2026, a 10% to 11% ROTCE and an operating efficiency of around 60%. In the near term, an 11% to 13% ROTCE moving towards the high end of the range for 2028 and an operating efficiency of 55% to 60%. And in the medium term, a 14% to 15% ROTCE and an operating efficiency below 55%.

Now to wrap it up, what we've outlined today is a testament to a city that has fundamentally transformed. We've come quite far, but we still have a lot to accomplish. The work we have done has changed our starting point. We have built a strong foundation through disciplined execution, strategic investments in technology and AI and a focus on our 5 interconnected businesses.

Our resilient balance sheet, robust risk management and clear path to increasing returns are not merely aspirations, but verifiable outcomes of our collective efforts. We are on track to meet our targets this year and have a clear path to drive sustainable growth and deliver improved shareholder value for years to come. This is a new era for Citi, one defined by strength, agility and a relentless pursuit of excellence. I truly believe this, and our results are starting to show it. I know this is real because I've been at the firm for 20 years, and I can feel the shift in our culture.

I walk through the building, and I see signs calling for us to raise the bar, and we're doing that. We hold ourselves accountable, and we measure ourselves on results, not on actions, not on words. We are confident in our trajectory, and I'm deeply committed to leading with the financial rigor and operational discipline necessary to realize these goals.

Thank you for your time and attention this morning. We look forward to your questions.

We'll now open the floor for questions. [Operator Instructions] All right. Your favorite part of the day. Now you get to ask a bunch of questions. So we're going to start Q&A for about 30 minutes. And first question.

Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo Securities. Thanks for having today. This question is for Jane and each of the line of business CEOs. I think if I were to characterize Citi's culture for, I'd say, the 50 years before you became CEO, Jane, I would describe it as reckless, arrogant and complacent. And I think a lot of people in this room would back me up on that.

You've all mentioned a change in culture, but I'd like to know what that really means and how long that actually needs to take place. I get the sense that you're changing at the top, but what message are you giving the 200,000-plus employees? How long does it take to change your culture? And what are each one of you doing to have that culture affect the change that you desire?

Thank you, Mike. And you're looking very sharp today. I think we appreciate the city blue tiger. It's exciting to see the culture change. And I think it starts, as you say, around my table. The businesses sit around the table. We work together to make sure that we're removing the barrier so that we can deliver one city to our clients. We run the firm of enforced enterprise-wide standards, framework approaches. That was not the case before. You saw AI as an example, we talked about, but many more.

We have institutionalized disciplines that you've heard, Vis talking about it, the cornerstore mindset, but equally the disciplines around productivity. We measure the organizational health. So there's no slippage from the org structure changes we put through. We review as a team, the operating dashboards every single month in excruciating detail, a bit like the 19 pages and all of the data that Gonzalo shared with you earlier. And we drive this through consistency of messaging through the entire organization.

We take ownership, we deliver with pride. And the leadership principles that we've laid out is fundamental to it, but they're embedded into recruiting, into financials, into the reviews that we do in the firm. And we are relentless about it. Guys, jump in.

If I can go next, I think for me, Mike, it's really around getting -- having a serial winning mindset. It is -- it is just kind of that obsession with kind of delivering for clients, client centricity, put the client at the center of everything and just kind of wrapping them in the best of Citi. I think that the way you get into that psyche, the wallet share and everything else that we talked about, those metrics will follow. It's really about client excellence. And I think that obsession is critical to how we win.

And I'll jump in, Mike. I mean I think it's, of course, ambition and accountability, but it's also making sure there is no time for managing up. I mean this is a culture which is focused on leading our people and focusing on our clients and putting our energy there.

If I'll just add, I think we have a huge responsibility. which is running the biggest global network in the financial services industry. And I think that responsibility is rests on the shoulders of this management team and all the more than 200,000 people who work every day for the benefit of our clients and run their businesses, do everything that they can to make our clients happy.

So I think that responsibility is very near and dear to our hearts. And therefore, the execution agenda, thinking about risks, thinking about control, but also thinking about doing the best for our clients is probably the most important thing that we rise with every day.

I go next. I'd say, Mike, my a little tough after what these guys are all covered. But my take on it would be success breeds confidence and itself breeds further success. So I think the success that the firm has had in the last few years in addressing its issues head on, fixing them and at the same time, building something that can win every single employee feels that. You walk on the trading floor, every single employee feels it. And the management team, Jane in particular, always gives credit to the employees themselves for driving it. And we walk around the firm and you can sense that. And that in itself is the change in the culture.

So I guess I got to wrap it up by saying everything that's been said before is consistent for the card business. We are customer obsessed. We are maniacally focused on winning in the market and the pace and the energy feels really different. We know the world is moving very quickly. We asked our team what mantra we wanted for this year, and we said, go mode. We're in go mode, we're moving quick. And it's an exciting, very energetic culture that we have right now.

And Mike, I love how we've got 7 questions in there.

Saul Martinez from HSBC. I'll try to ask only one question. But clearly, impressive accomplishments since the last Investor Day. You've outlined a number of areas where there's a lot of white space for growth and profitability expansion. But the couple of areas where in terms of the financial guidance stood out to me as being a little bit cautious were the low to mid-single-digit growth outlook in the near term in banking and in services.

In services, that is a pretty sharp deceleration and lower than what I would expect nominal GDP growth to be. I'm just curious what -- if you can outline what the building blocks there are. I'd imagine rates have something to do with that. And Vis, super positive presentation. I was hyped up listening to it and a lot of opportunity for share gains, but curious how you got to the mid-single-digit revenue guidance if you can also outline the building blocks there.

Sure. Maybe I can go first. So Saul, I was thinking of you when I put that slide together for the last performance. So clearly, you and I were in empathy mode at that time. But just if I go back to that slide, one of the things we tried to show was the predictability of the fee revenue base. We've shown you how we've grown that base. Secondly, we've shown you how we grow the deposit base. Thirdly, I think we gave you a little bit of a glimpse in how we're seeing settlement volumes, issuer volumes go through our pipes, payment volumes go through our pipes.

So we've been disclosing all of these metrics. And therefore, you see that those numbers come through. Just on the total revenue, the simple fact that the stage of the interest rate cycle that we're at in the near term as we're expecting rates to come down. You saw it on the 10-year slide as well. So what we've done is given you a full view, NII and NIR. We've given you a view on the drivers of the KPI and then where the interest rate cycle is. So we've given you a through-the-cycle view and a near-term view as well. So hopefully, that answers your question. But one of the things I would say to you is we are absolutely focused on grasping up opportunities.

The one thing I started my presentation with was when I said we're going to retain our #1 market share, and we're going to grow it. So if you think about the wallet share, the fact that we will be a more preeminent player when it comes to wallet share. So hopefully, if a rate impact happens, it happens and impacts the entire wallet for the industry, but our aspiration is to continue to grow wallet share.

From the banking side, I mean, if I start with clearly, our key kind of investment areas. NAM inbound is a massive focus for us across the corporate banking piece, the commercial banking piece and the investment banking piece. And when you look at the areas where we're underpenetrated, North America is one. So that's a huge focus area. Leveraged finance, we've talked about. We're going to do this responsibly and with a lot of care. But when you look at where we could really turn up the dial and we talk about it all the time, for instance, in ECM, clearly, we are in the top 5.

In secondary trades, et cetera, we can ramp it up. In convertibles, we can ramp it up. But in something like IPOs, we are struggling a bit with the lack of incumbency because we didn't feature with the sponsors when folks put them into those assets, when those exits come, we lack the incumbency because we were not there when the sponsors acquired that. We are building up to that and in a kind of way the broader macro plays into that because not every IPO is entirely doable today, and they are taking different forms of M&A and sell sides and the like.

So I think we are creating that incumbency. So which is why this will not be linear. We will -- M&A has been incredible. I think that mindset is already in there. We are doing the bridges. You saw the proof points. I think ECMB will ramp it up. Leverage finance, we are ramping it up. Sponsors, we are gaining share. So I don't think it will be linear, but the key here is steady progress where bit by bit.

And one last point there is talent. And this is really a talent game. It's not a numbers game. It is really quality of talent. You have the classic 80-20 rule with the best bankers. And this is something that we really started -- we got going last year. A lot of the folks have just come on board this quarter, and this is something that we'll keep investing in and focused on.

And maybe -- sorry, maybe to jump in on both just for a second on how we thought about our client-driven growth, right? First, we -- there's a couple of lenses in our approach that I think maybe is worth noting. One is we look at have we done this before? Have we been doing this? Do we see it in the momentum? And two, do we have the actions? Do we have the investments in order to anchor that? And you will see that most of our revenue commitments at the firm level is mid-single digits on the revenue front. They are really anchored primarily on volume and continuation of client-driven growth, right? It's really a Q story.

You're seeing in Q1, and we hope to be able to show you that in the near term as well. The second thing I would mention is we've also -- we've assumed a normal environment as our base case. You saw that on one of the slides. But we've also pressure tested our commitments, and these are commitments, not aspirations, just to be clear. We pressure tested them for a range of environments as well. So that goes into the consideration set, too.

Great. Thank you. I think we had a question over there.

Ebrahim Poonawala, Bank of America. I guess, maybe, Andy, for you on the wealth management side, it's long been discussed whether Citi lacks distribution in the United States from a wealth management product. Just talk to us, like you obviously highlighted the AI agent. When you think about wealth distribution in the U.S., do you need hundreds of more financial advisers that you need to recruit? Or is the business transforming where how you acquire clients and how you deepen that is truly changing, where the playbook has changed as opposed to just paying up and bringing on advisers?

Ebrahim, thank you. Great question. Here's how we think about it. I think the most important things in terms of growing the wealth business in the U.S. are do you have real feeder engines for the business that you can lean into. We talked about 2 during the presentation. One, the powerful plugging in of the Private Bank, in particular, into our institutional businesses. I mean that is a massive feeder engine for our business.

Second, the realignment of the retail bank, which we talked about, a massive driver of growth in the affluent and high net worth arena. We didn't talk about the workplace, but we have a wealth of work business as well. It has deep 50-year roots serving law firms. There's a lot more we can do with that business. So those are really paramount in terms of importance of growing here in the U.S. And I would look at AI and Citi Sky as an eye-opener in terms of what's going to be possible in terms of productivity.

You're going to see us invest behind that technology. You're also going to see us add advisers and bankers that's happening at the same time. But what I think you should take away is, though, to achieve our ambitions, we don't need to spend 10 or 20 years recruiting to get to scale. Technology is giving us the opportunity to unlock scale in ways that we didn't -- we couldn't have imagined just a few years ago.

Brent [indiscernible]. And I was very impressed with the dynamics of all you professionals. But Shahmir, with regard to the Global Payments and being the bank of the future, I was stablecoin going to affect or possibly disrupt your business? Or how are you going to work with that? So could you address that for us?

Sure. Absolutely. I'll try and summarize. So first and foremost, as you've probably seen with recent research, while there's a lot of hype around stablecoins, if you look through the volumes, you will see that there's a relatively small amount of volume that are truly used for what I would call institutional payments. So I think it's -- we're still in the very early stages of it. So that's the first data point.

The second one is that as we talk to a number of our clients, and I made a point of that, we are constantly consulting with the biggest multinational banks, fintechs around the globe. Everybody is assessing what they want to do as they think about the future. There is pockets of take-up. And there is pockets of interest.

As I mentioned, I think there is stepping away from stablecoins, there's a lot of focus on saying, what can blockchain technology do for me? How do I move my money more efficiently? How do I make payments more efficiently? How do I think of managing my working capital better? So that's something we've already put in play, as I showed to you today. So as stablecoins evolve, as our clients come in and say, I need a stable coin or I need to use a stablecoin for something.

As I mentioned, we are open for business. We've got a blockchain up and running. We will look to evolve our product strategy to involve a stablecoin as well. But in the meantime, if you're a West Coast company, who wants to pay an app developer sitting in Asia and they want to get paid in a stablecoin, we're absolutely engineering for that. We -- as I mentioned, we've signed an agreement with Coinbase. We're in the process of engineering that solution using our WorldLink platform, and we will be up and ready and be able to service our clients as they engineer their agendas going forward.

So I would say we're right in the thick of it. We're in the very, very early stages of the first innings as our clients look to evolve their platforms. And I think this is going to be just one of the many things our clients will look to do. And therefore, the way we are thinking about it is with an interoperability lens. This will be one of the building blocks in addition to the many that we offer our clients.

Next question, Erika?

Erika Najarian, UBS. My question is for Gonzalo. I think your investors very much appreciate that you laid out your ROTCE targets through the numerator, right? I think the very powerful message from today was you talked about growth in revenues and not taking out expenses to get to that answer by just taking out the transformation expense and start reinvesting it. That being said, the denominator opportunities are very real in terms of capital reform.

And so if I take that 14% to 15%, and there's essentially 2 parts. One, your SCB is 100 basis points higher than JPMorgan, BofA and Wells Fargo, right? And second, your 13.1% essentially assumes that you're going to cross that 50 basis point surcharge on January 1, 2028. as you understand the reforms and if you could normalize your SCB to 2.5% to 3%, and I know you've done the math already. I'm pretty sure you were picked for that reason. What -- where could that...

[indiscernible] as well.

[indiscernible] was the key, absolutely.

Where could that 14% to 15% go?

Well, thank you. And thank you for trying to buck me into different numbers that we already shared, Erika. Good to see you. Let me step back maybe for a minute, and let me take it in pieces, right? Let me start on the journey that we've been on with capital. You saw it for a couple of years, right? In the period between 2020 and 2023, our SCB actually increased all the way to 4.3%. Now on the back of our strategy working and our PPNR increasing by about $6 billion, that increased our absorption capacity, you started to see the SCB come down for us from the 4.8% peak down to 3.6%.

Now we haven't assumed that, that comes down. This is -- before I talk about NPRs in a second. But I would think, right? And again, I think you want us to be thoughtful and not bake in things that -- where we don't have clarity and finality yet. But you can think that over time, as we continue to successfully implement our strategy, our PPNR will continue to go north, and that will continue to increase our absorption capacity. And hopefully, over time, there's a narrowing range between our internal assumptions and also how the Fed models work. That's box #1.

Box #2 on the NPR, I'll go back to a couple of pieces. In the first quarter earnings call, I spoke about how -- purely on the NPRs of G-SIB and Basel III, net-net, it's a moderate net benefit. Again, we have not baked that into our assumptions. And then the last piece, obviously, is the SCB and the changes that are going to be made to the modeling. You called it out well. We are 110 basis points away from the floor, right, from the 2.5% SCB.

So our assumption is that there will be some benefit there. And now I know you can do the math, right, for about 10 basis points of CET1, that equates to a little bit over 10 basis points of ROTCE. So if you want to do, I think about on top of the 14% or 15%, that gives you a sense of depending on what you believe, how far you can go.

Ken Usdin from Autonomous Research. Another one for Gonzalo. We talked about a lot about risk management and Pat touched on some of the changing dynamics inside the card business. I believe a few years ago, we talked about the cost of credit. That was also embedded in the ROTCE outlook being around 1%. Just want to understand like how you think -- what built into the 14% to 15% in terms of cost of credit and how the overall just credit risk environment and structure has changed with -- inside Citi over the last few years?

Sure. Happy to start. And obviously, feel free to jump in and overwrite anything I say as you're running the business, but thank you for the question. I think a couple of thoughts. First, and I mentioned this briefly, so did. We have invested quite a bit in continuously strengthening our risk framework, right? And so we feel very comfortable. I feel very comfortable with it because we been working hard on AI and machine learning models on digitizing collections of being recession-ready, right, at multiple spots. You have seen us behaving this way.

Actually, if you go back to the -- for those that are very familiar with the vintages and the normalization cycle into peaking into 2024, we started with preventive actions. That is how dynamic we are in the fourth quarter of 2022, taking credit driven tightening in action. So we feel confident about how dynamic we are, how thoughtful we are about some of those pieces.

The second thing I would say is we're very well reserved, right? Tam spoke about that at 8% or thereabouts. That's $16 billion of our $21 billion of reserves, right, that really account for multi-scenario, -- we reserve on a multi-scenario basis. I think I was sharing in one of my slides, 5.2% is the blended 8-quarter unemployment assumption, which is obviously higher than the current. And the peak unemployment scenario has -- is close to 7%, 6.9% -- so that gives you a sense also that we are, we are reserved and we manage to those set of potential scenarios.

Now you also asked about the medium term and what we're thinking about. So in terms of that, as we invest for growth in this business, the credit cost that we've assumed, right, move in sync with that growth and expectation, we've given guidance in our KPIs for the cards business of mid-single-digit growth for our loans. And so you can imagine that our credit costs will move in sync.

And then the last piece I'll mention is in addition to stress testing constantly, right, our portfolios and our franchise, and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, as we looked at our commitments, both the near term and the medium term, again, we assume the normal environment as the base case, but we've also tested for a range of environments as well so that we can deliver the commitments within a range of deterioration.

And anything, I don't know, Pam, do you want to add?

I think you covered it.

Question over here.

So in terms of the very impressive improvements in profitability we've seen since 2022, part of it's been driven by the business units, but we've also seen a fall in deferred tax assets. And can I just get a bit more color about what you're expecting there? Gonzalo, it looked from the slide like the EUR 14 billion from last year almost goes away by about 2030. But can you give us a little bit more color around that?

Yes. Two observations. Thank you for the question, first of all. The first observation is everybody gets to talk about fancy products, and I get to discuss VTA reflection. I know it was a Roll-choice, but still -- but a couple of things I would say on DTA. Thank you. And I'm sure you're going to pull up a ruler, right, with the slide printed and you're going to try to measure the near term and so on. That's what I would do at least for sure. What I would say is a couple of things.

We have seen DTA consumption obviously doesn't happen in a day. It's something that you may not have seen us consume a lot in the last few years, but -- and you can see through the disclosure through the disclosures, our U.S. profitability has been increasing. Actually, '25 was much greater than '24 and '23, respectively. So we have seen the momentum. That's also why we're confident in making this commitment.

Secondly, in first quarter earnings, I spoke about how this year, we're expecting $800 million and above of burn-in. And that comes -- hopefully, you saw it come across, but each of the businesses we're talking, you heard Vis talk about his home strategy, right, and how we really wanted to outperform there. Of course, PAM is 100% U.S. profitability.

So all that journey that she showed of improving returns for the last few years underpins a lot of what you've seen. Andy, of course, as well, right, that improved profitability. A lot of it is U.S.-centric. I can go on and on. But that to me is what underpins the path that we are forecasting as it relates to the DTA burn-in. So it is -- and by the way, the last thing I would say is that Jane has made it part of everyone's scorecard out here, myself including.

Part of the culture change.

I think we have a question back there.

Manan Gosalia, Morgan Stanley. Gonzalo, a question for you. As you think about the expense ratio this year, it's about 60%. There's going to be revenue growth from here, transformation costs are coming down, stranded costs are coming down. So as you think about the range of 55% to 60% that you've given in the near term, can you help us narrow that down? And I think investments are also going to be self-funded largely over the near term. So can you help us just think through that expense number over the next couple of years?

All right. Thank you. Thanks very much for the question. Let me start by -- first, I appreciate your confidence in us because you're giving it as a fact that we're going to meet our guidance for this year at the 60%. So I appreciate it.

We are.

We are. So yes, we are looking forward to 3peating, right, because in 2 years in a row, we brought down our operating efficiency, and this will be the third year. And as you look into the near term in that 5% to 60% range, there's a few drivers there, right? The first one is client-driven growth. And we just spoke about it, right, how the mid-single-digit growth and how we're making the investments required to make sure that we can sustain that.

Now you've seen us do that before, right? Our ex legacy franchise CAGR is 6%. Last year, our ex notable items is 7% revenue growth. So we expect the continuation of our mid-single-digit revenue growth, and that will help with the 55% to 60%. And then you go to the expense side, right? And as we said, we're trying to make sure that we can self-fund the investments that we have spoken about, the $5 billion in incremental expenses as well as the technology spend that we were talking about.

And to me, the test that I use is a confidence test, right? Have you seen it before? Can you touch it and feel it? Is it just a best effort and an aspiration? Or do you actually have plans that you are maniacally focusing every week? And so if I go through the 3 components that will help underpin that structural efficiency, you look at stranded costs, $1.3 billion last year, first quarter, $200 million. You annualize that, that alone already is showing you that we're coming down.

I think we're going to do faster probably. If you look at transformation, Jane has spoken about, we are at -- in our programs, 90% of them are at or near completion. As the programs get completed, we started in the first quarter already seeing those costs come down, and we showed you how we expect those to basically go away in the near term by 2028. So I'm very confident in that, right, because it's trigger-driven. This happens, that happens. It's not something that I need to go find it. And the third piece is are the functional and operational expenses.

You heard from Pam about the investments in AI and agent assist. And you heard from actually from everyone else. And those -- by the way, those functional and operational expenses, just to give you a taste, I spoke about milestones, I spoke about resources. [indiscernible], our COO, Tim Ryan, they sit every single week. We have all the processes mapped. We have our teams, finance is part of that. My teams are engaged every single week. We have milestones. We have resourcing. We have targets. So it's a target-driven exercise. It's not a -- let me see what I can do.

Great. Question over there, back there.

Glenn Schorr from Evercore. So I asked this in the context of, I'm sure your investors are very happy with you basically doubling what you earned about a year ago if you hit these targets. So I have 2 observations. One is ex markets, the 4 other businesses have targets that are above the overall company's target. And two is despite this great progress, if you hit on it, you'd still be a couple of hundred basis points short of where some of your largest competitors have their targets. It's what it is, they're all targets.

So I'm looking for the high-level thought of, one, does that have something to do with the capital intensity of what you are building out like markets? Is there just conservatism built in towards the denominator question or expenses or maybe leaving room in there for a credit cycle. So just curious on the high-level view.

Look, as we take the the continuation of the journey that we started in Investor Day in 2022 is this is the step -- we're taking you through the step by step of how do we get up to the medium term. Do all of us around the table believe there's further upside from the firm from there? Absolutely. But you've seen this. I think you know me, you know us by now. We are maniacally relentlessly focused on delivering step-by-step what we need to be doing. We've laid you out a very deliberate path.

We're ensuring we have the flexibility to invest so that we can be driving both the medium term and beyond return profile of the firm, making sure it's durable and making sure it comes in line with the peers eventually. I think there's some business mix issues here that get taken into account. There's some taxation elements that get taken into account. But let us focus on 11% to 13% first, 14% to 15% afterwards, and we'll be back at that point to update you on what the path is from there.

I think we have time for 2 more questions.

It's Richard Ramsden from Goldman Sachs. Great presentation. You spent some time talking about the opportunities from AI. Can you spend a couple of minutes talking about some of the risks that you're thinking about? And just in the interest of time, can we just narrow it to the services and the wealth business where I think there's a lot of focus. And maybe talk a little bit about what you're doing to protect against those.

Sure. Maybe I can...

Yes.

So as I mentioned, and I specifically talked about it, is that whatever we're doing in AI is in full partnership with Zodenk and all of our risk partners and our audit partners. So anything that we do effectively has to go through a process where our second-line partners, operational risk partners have to sign off on it between model risk management, operational risk management, audit, we take them along for the ride, so before anything gets deployed. So hopefully, that gives you a view. And then as we deploy some of the AI, and I talked about some of the use cases that we've deployed, we have a model review process as well, where we say, what are the outcomes from the model as we've deployed the model, does this model behave like you would expect it to?

And I think the third piece of it is that as we've deployed models, there are clearly processes. If you think about just the 20 million, 25-odd million payments every day that we do, if we employed a model just to execute those transactions, as our COO loves to say, even if the model is 99.9% effective, you're going to have a 0.1% chance that you're going to have a payment go back. So how do you think about putting a human in the loop in how you think about processing that transaction? So it's all of those thoughts going into how do we deploy a model, how do we keep humans in the loop as part of the proposition.

We should still be able to generate saves and get the right outcomes from the model, but it needs to be a full circle where a model gets reviewed, gets launched with risk and oversight and then consistently improved over time. Hopefully, I answered your question, but it's a really engaged process with second line and third line to say what we're deploying in a governed way with oversight and controls is how we are thinking of having rolled out this AI strategy. Again, very early days, still a lot of work to do, but risk is very much front of mind as we're thinking about rolling out model.

And I'll just jump in because many -- I won't repeat many of the same themes that Shahmir just went through because they apply to wealth. Richard, to your question, I'd say we're very aware of the risks, but we're -- we also are very excited about the opportunities for risk mitigation that come from deploying AI. And so I'll just give you 2 examples. I mean in wealth management, one of the most important things that all firms are trying to do is ensure consistency across a scale adviser group in terms of how clients are being approached, the kind of advice that's being delivered. You can create that level of consistency in, again, very powerful ways using AI.

And then in terms of our supervisory processes, I mean, historically, supervisory processes involved a good deal of sampling. With AI, you've got an opportunity for truly auditable interactions with clients happening continuously. So that focus on consistency and continuous oversight of the business, these are massive new opportunities to risk manage these businesses.

And I would just add that from a competitive dimension. If we look at services, the scale, we've just consistently shown that we disrupt ourselves. So we're not protect -- we're not in the mindset of protect what we have. We're in the mindset of build what we need. And if that requires disruption, we will do so. And I think the same for Andy. I remember the day, Andy, when you and I sat down, I said, go for it, go and disrupt everyone else in wealth. So...

You do things that make other people nervous.

Alright, time for one last question.

Matt O'Connor, Deutsche Bank. I wanted to ask a question on prime brokerage within equities. Obviously, you highlight that as an area, a key driver going forward. And to be frank, like some of your peers have kind of gotten a head start and focusing on it in the last few years and have had good execution there. But I also hear that there's kind of an endless demand for it from the client base.

So I answer my own question, but how much of this is kind of gaining share with new product, new technology, new people? And how much of it is just the kind of endless demand out there?

Matt, thanks, and you help me with the answer. It's a little of both. I think it's one of the reasons why we're pursuing this, and I hope my diagram was very clear. Our clients are telling us literally that they want us to enter this game. And it's exactly for the 2 reasons that you said, partly because there's the endless demand and partly because they'd rather meet that demand at the margin with a new player. They'd rather have a fourth big player on top of the 3. So that's one of the reasons that we're pursuing this long-term strategy to grow it. We're doing it at a reasonable pace.

I think there would have been ways when some others did it, there would have been ways to just buy a lot of balances at a very high price and you get sort of a mix of things and maybe some of which you don't want, some of which you can't handle at that juncture. We're doing at a very, very even measured pace. As I think I mentioned, we definitely helped by the market going up, but we're doing more than that. And as we have these investments, we can take on more. And it's all powered by the fact our equity derivatives business is just churning out the money. And so it helps to fund this thing.

So -- but yes, the implicit answer you had in your question is exactly right. It's a combination of the demand from clients and the need to maybe have a fourth big provider. That's worldwide. I think that's one of the reasons perhaps why the European banks have maybe not grown at the same pace as the U.S. banks. They just don't have as full a platform.

Thank you, everyone. Now I'm going to turn it over to Jane for some closing remarks.

Yes. Well, thank you. Well, we have certainly covered a lot of ground today. And I think on behalf of all of the team and indeed, all of the firm, thank you so much for your time and for your engagement. At our Investor Day 4 years ago, I told you we would transform Citi. And today, you see that we have. This is now a bank with ambition. It's a hungry team. They're eager to go toe to toe with any competitor and gone are the days when good enough was good enough. We're a team that has shown that we can multitask. We do not take the easy way out.

We don't take short-term fixes. This is a well-managed bank. The holding company mindset and diffused accountability of the past has been vanished. And it's now a resilient bank with global capabilities that are a real clear competitive advantage, and it's well past time to change the outdated mindset about our global footprint. You can see we have moved at pace. We have persevered through unprecedented challenges, and we have built the capabilities that will sustain our progress.

As we've said, a new city has emerged. It is one with intellectual firepower, with ingenuity, with scale, with executional excellence and above all, with drive. I am deeply grateful to every single one of our colleagues for what they have done to get us here. But I am even more grateful for the passion that they have for what comes next. We put Citi back in the game. We intend to stay there, and we intend to win it. Thank you very much.

Hello, and welcome to Citi's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Today's call will be hosted by Jenn Landis, Head of Citi Investor Relations. [Operator Instructions] Also, as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. Ms. Landis, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you all for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm joined today by our Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Jane Fraser; and our Chief Financial Officer, Gonzalo Luchetti.

I'd like to remind you that today's presentation, which is available for download on our website, citigroup.com, may contain forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of factors, including those described in our earnings materials as well as in our SEC filings.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Jane.

Thank you, Jenn, and good morning to everyone. We picked up right where we left off last year with an exceptionally strong start to 2026. This morning, we reported net income of $5.8 billion for the first quarter with an EPS of $3.06 and an RoTCE of 13.1%. Four of the five core businesses saw revenue up double digits. Overall revenues were up sharply at 14%, and we had another quarter of very healthy positive operating leverage. The continued strong performance across our lines of business shows the benefit of a diversified model, which continues to drive consistent, predictable revenue growth.

Services, our crown jewel, had an exceptional first quarter. New mandates were up 40%, while the combination of client-driven growth and fees underpinned a 17% increase in revenues. Cross-border transactions were up 12%. Deposits grew by 16% and assets under custody and administration were up over 20%.

Markets crossed $7 billion in revenues for the first time in a decade. Equities was up nearly 40%, surpassing the $2 billion revenue mark, driven by derivatives, prime services and cash. And FICC, up 13% saw notable performance in commodities and FX.

Banking continued to build momentum, with fees up 12% amidst a record first quarter for us in M&A. ECM was up over 60%, while we continue to gain share with sponsors. We advised on the three largest deals so far this year, Paramount, McCormick and EQT-AES, demonstrating how we are far better penetrating the C-suite, supported by continued investment in talent. Clients are increasingly looking to Citi for our advice in addition to our execution capabilities.

With revenues up 11%, Wealth saw its eighth straight quarter of growth and its returns continue to improve. Now as you know, its results now include U.S. Retail Banking. Citigold and Retail Banking were up 13% as we leverage our branch footprint to capture assets that our clients have with other firms. Investment revenue grew 11%, with client investment assets up a pleasing 14%.

U.S. Consumer Cards saw 4% revenue growth with spend up 5% and delivered a 19% RoTCE as American consumers remained resilient. With our portfolio heavily weighted to prime, delinquencies and credit losses declined and are well in line with expectations. You can now see how we've lined up the reporting of this business with our strategy as we focus on growing our general purpose portfolio and optimizing our private label portfolio.

In the quarter, we demonstrated our continued commitment to returning excess capital to our investors with the repurchase of $6.3 billion of shares, and we are close to completing our $20 billion share buyback plan. We ended the quarter with a CET1 ratio of 12.7%, which is 110 basis points above our regulatory capital requirement, and our tangible book value grew by 8% from a year ago.

As we look towards the new capital regime, whilst the latest NPR is an improvement upon the 2023 version, it's not yet where it should be and we should be active in advocating for necessary changes in the comment period.

These quarterly results reflect the execution of some of the most consequential changes in our firm's history, our business investments, the transformation, the simplification, divestitures, delayering and modernization. That said, and I know I've said this many times, we have not yet reached our destination, and we will continue to be solely focused on executing our vision and relentlessly driving our business performance.

We've now entered the final phase of our divestitures, and we continue to drive down our stranded costs. In February, we completed our exit from Russia. We have entered into agreements with several prominent investors to sell an additional 24% of Banamex, in transactions that are expected to close in the coming months. And we're on track to close the sale of our consumer business in Poland this summer.

The momentum we have established in our businesses can also be seen in our transformation, which remains our other top priority for the year. 90% of our programs are now at or near our target state. And our firm is materially safer and sounder as a result of this work. We've started to reduce the spend on our transformation programs, resulting in an improvement in our operating efficiency this year and beyond. We are methodically deploying AI at scale across the firm to drive revenues and process improvements, enhance client experiences and strengthen our defensive capabilities and you'll be hearing much more about this on Investor Day.

Switching gears, the global macro economy to date has weathered shock after shock. However, the impact of the Middle East conflict is hitting Asia and Europe harder than countries such as the U.S. and Brazil, which are more insulated from energy shocks. Clearly, the longer this goes on, the more pronounced the second- or third-order impacts are going to be around the world. And inflation is now a greater risk to growth and will likely cause central banks to lean towards more restrictive monetary policies.

Consistent with our position throughout the last decade, we continue to be a source of trust and financial strength for our clients during turmoil. We intentionally designed a very resilient strategy that performs in different environments, and the last few years have borne that out. You can see it in the deposits and loan growth in our high-quality loan portfolios and robust balance sheet built on the foundation of disciplined risk management. And we have the capital we need to continue to grow as we support our clients.

So with a very strong first quarter behind us, we remain well on track to deliver the 10% to 11% RoTCE for the year. At our Investor Day next month, we will lay out a clear vision for how we will continue to grow each of our five businesses organically and deliver sustainably higher returns over time. This is an exciting time for our firm. We have momentum behind us, and we are looking forward to sharing the path ahead with you next month.

With that, I will turn it over to Gonzalo. And then we will be happy to take your questions.

Thank you, Jane, and good morning, everyone. Before I begin, I would like to start by thanking Jane and Mark for their support and providing a very smooth transition to my role as CFO. I'm excited to build on the momentum they've created as we focus on delivering higher, sustainable returns and value for our shareholders.

As I step into the role, three elements stood out to me quite distinctively. First, we have a formidable foundation underscored by a robust balance sheet, rigorous risk management and a well-diversified business model, which gives me confidence in our ability to produce durable results. We are a source of resilience and strength for our clients in a range of environments.

Second, I'm excited about the opportunity to help deliver significant return improvement over time by driving client-led growth, continuously pursuing productivity improvement and deploying capital to accretive return opportunities.

Finally, I'm highly energized by our relentless focus on execution. I see how each of our businesses and teams operate with urgency, focused on driving performance every single day. And my role will be to ensure we are strategically purposeful and tactically disciplined in resource allocation. We are firmly in execution mode, and I feel it is time to continue to elevate Citi and leave an indelible mark on a 200-year-plus iconic firm.

With that, let me remind you that on April 3, we published a recasted historical financial supplement for our reportable business segments to facilitate comparability with the results this quarter and going forward. Additionally, the results for the segment this quarter reflect the TCE allocations for this year, and we've included additional details on this in the appendix of the earnings presentation.

Now turning to the quarter. I'll start with the firm-wide financial results, focusing on year-on-year comparisons unless I indicate otherwise, then review the performance of our businesses in greater detail.

On Slide 6, we show financial results for the full firm, which demonstrate the progress we've made and the momentum of our strategy. This quarter, we reported net income of $5.8 billion, EPS of $3.06 and an RoTCE of 13.1%, on $24.6 billion of revenues, generating positive operating leverage for the firm and the majority of our five businesses.

Total revenues were up 14% with growth driven by each of our businesses and legacy franchises as well as the impact of FX translation, partially offset by a decline in Corporate/Other. Net interest income, excluding Markets, which you can see on the bottom left side of the slide, was up 7%, driven by growth across all businesses and legacy franchises, partially offset by a decline in Corporate/Other. Noninterest revenues, excluding Markets were up 29%, driven by growth across all businesses and all other. And total Markets revenues were up 19%.

Expenses of $14.3 billion were up 7% with an efficiency ratio of 58%, which I'll provide details on shortly. And cost of credit was $2.8 billion, primarily consisting of net credit losses in U.S. Cards as well as a firm-wide net ACL build of $597 million.

On Slide 7, we show the expense and efficiency trends over the past 5 quarters. As I just mentioned, expenses increased 7%. And you can see on the bottom of the slide, we incurred nearly $500 million of severance as we target efficiencies across our expense base and bring down head count. Excluding severance, the increase in expenses was 4%, primarily driven by FX as well as volume and revenue-related expenses including compensation and transactional and product servicing expenses, partially offset by lower legal expenses.

As you can see on the bottom right side of the slide, in addition to severance, growth in compensation and benefits included investments we've made to support growth in the businesses as well as performance-related expenses, partially offset by productivity saves, stranded cost reduction and lower transformation expenses in Corporate/Other. And it is worth noting that this expense increase was against 14% revenue growth resulting in an improvement in our efficiency ratio of approximately 400 basis points.

On Slide 8, we show U.S. Cards and corporate credit metrics. As I mentioned, the firm's cost of credit was $2.8 billion, primarily consisting of net credit losses in U.S. Cards as well as a firm-wide net ACL build. Embedded in the firm-wide net ACL build is a further skew to the downside scenario, reflecting the increased uncertainty in the macroeconomic outlook. And our reserves now incorporate an 8-quarter weighted average unemployment rate of approximately 5.4%, which continues to include a downside scenario, average unemployment rate of nearly 7%.

At the end of the quarter, we had nearly $22 billion in total reserves with a reserve-to-funded loans ratio of 2.6%. We continue to maintain a high credit quality card portfolio with approximately 85% of balances extended to consumers with FICO scores of 660 or higher and a reserve-to-funded loan ratio in our U.S. Cards portfolio of 8%.

Looking at the right-hand side of the slide, you can see that our corporate exposure is 78% investment grade. And in the quarter, corporate nonaccrual loans as well as corporate net credit losses remained low. We are confident in the high-quality nature of our portfolios, which reflect our robust risk appetite framework, rigorous client selection and our focus on using the balance sheet in the context of the overall client relationship. And this quarter, we included a slide in the appendix of the presentation that shows Citibank's loan to nonbank financial institutions, including $22 billion of corporate private credit which is 100% securitized, 98% investment-grade and not a significant component of our overall exposure.

Turning to capital and the balance sheet on Slide 9, where I will speak to sequential variances. Our total assets of $2.8 trillion increased 5%, driven by growth in trading-related assets, cash and loans. Net end-of-period loans increased 1% with client-driven growth in Banking and Markets partially offset by a seasonal decline in U.S. Cards.

Our $1.4 trillion deposit base remains well diversified and increased 3%, driven by growth in Services as we continue to deepen with clients with a focus on high-quality operating deposits. We reported a 114% average LCR and maintained over $1 trillion of available liquidity resources. In the first quarter, we continue to deploy capital to support client-driven growth while at the same time, prioritizing the return of capital to common shareholders as evidenced by $6.3 billion in buybacks executed, which includes the benefit from the sale of the remaining operations in Russia. We ended the quarter at 12.7% CET1 ratio under the binding standardized approach, approximately 110 basis points above the 11.6% regulatory capital requirement, including a 100-basis point management buffer.

Turning to the businesses on Slide 10. We show the results for Services in the first quarter. Revenues were up 17% with the best first quarter in a decade, driven by growth across both TTS and Securities Services. NII increased 18%, driven by higher average deposit balances and deposit spreads. NIR increased 15% as we continue to see strong activity and engagement with both corporate and commercial clients and across key high-growth segments, including e-commerce and fintech driving momentum across underlying fee drivers with cross-border transaction value up 12% and assets under custody and administration, up 21% which includes the impact of the market valuations as well as new assets onboarding.

Expenses increased 14%, primarily driven by higher volume and revenue-related expenses, higher compensation as well as higher technology costs. Average loans increased 14%, largely driven by export agency finance and working capital loans. Average deposits increased 16% with growth across both North America and international largely driven by an increase in operating deposits as we continue to deepen relationships with existing clients and onboard new clients. Services generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $2.2 billion with an RoTCE of 27%.

Turning to Markets on Slide 11. Markets had its best quarter in over a decade with revenues up 19%, driven by growth in both fixed income and equities, with strong momentum across client segments, including corporates, asset managers, hedge funds and banks.

Fixed income revenues were up 13% with growth across spread products and other fixed income as well as rates and currencies. Rates and currencies was up 6%, driven by FX on higher volumes and optimization of the balance sheet, largely offset by rates; and spread products and other fixed income was up 27%, primarily driven by strong growth in commodities. Equities revenues were up 39%, driven by continued momentum across derivatives, prime services and cash. We grew prime balances by more than 50% with growth across both new and existing clients as well as higher market valuations.

Expenses increased 11%, primarily driven by higher performance-related compensation as well as higher volume-related and legal expenses. Average loans increased 27%, primarily driven by financing activity in spread products. Markets generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $2.6 billion with an RoTCE of 18.7%.

Turning to Banking on Slide 12. Revenues were up 15%, driven by investment banking and corporate lending. Investment banking fees increased 12%, driven by growth in M&A and ECM, partially offset by a decline in DCM. M&A was up 19% and represented our strongest first quarter in a decade with continued growth in sell-side fees and strong performance with sponsors. ECM was up 64%, reflecting growth in follow-ons and convertibles against the backdrop of an active market. And while DCM fees were down 6% amidst lower non-investment grade activity, we maintained our overall market share versus year-end 2025. Corporate lending revenues, excluding mark-to-market on loan hedges, declined 3%.

Expenses increased 20%, primarily driven by higher compensation and benefits, reflecting performance and investments and higher volume-related transaction expenses. Cost of credit was $132 million consisting of a net ACL build of $126 million, reflecting the increased uncertainty in the macroeconomic outlook and exposure growth, largely offset by refinements to loss assumptions. We continue to feel good about the high-quality nature of our corporate lending portfolio with nonaccrual loans and net credit losses remaining low. Banking delivered net income of $304 million with an RoTCE of 15.8%.

Turning to Wealth on Slide 13. Revenues were up 11%, driven by growth in Citigold and Retail Banking as well as the Private Bank, partially offset by a decline in Wealth at Work. NII, which you can see on the bottom left side of the slide, increased 14%, driven by higher deposit spreads and average balances, partially offset by lower mortgage spreads. NIR increased 5%, driven by 11% higher investment fee revenues, partially offset by the sale of the trust business.

Net new investment asset flows were approximately $15 billion in the quarter, contributing to approximately $43 billion in the last 12 months, representing approximately 7% organic growth. This contributed to client investment assets being up 14%, which also includes the impact of market valuations and was partially offset by the sale of the trust business assets.

Expenses increased 1%, driven by investments in technology and higher volume-related expenses, partially offset by lower compensation and benefits, including the impact of the sale of the trust business. Average loans were up 6% as we continue to grow securities-based lending and deploy balance sheet to support clients and drive client investment asset growth. Average deposits were up 4%, largely in the Private Bank, as net new deposits were partially offset by outflows and a shift from deposits to higher-yielding investments, including on Citi's platform.

Wealth had a pretax margin of 18%, generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $432 million with an RoTCE of 10.8%. We remain confident in the path to higher returns from here as we continue integrating our Retail Banking business within Wealth and building on its improved performance this quarter.

Turning to U.S. Consumer Cards. On Slide 14, as we've said in the past, customer preferences have continued to shift towards general purpose cards. And as such, we've provided disclosures for this segment to show metrics split between our general purpose and private label portfolios.

This quarter, revenues were up 4%, driven by growth across both NII and NIR. NII was up 3%, driven by higher interest-earning balances and spreads and NIR was up 14%, driven by lower partner payment accruals and higher annual fees. We saw momentum in underlying drivers supported by growth in general purpose cards, with acquisitions up 12%, spend volume up 6% and average loans up 4%, partially offset by declines in private label cards.

Expenses increased 1%. Cost of credit was $2.1 billion, consisting of $1.7 billion of net credit losses, which declined 11% as well as a net ACL build of $350 million reflecting seasonal portfolio mix changes, the forward purchase commitment of the Barclays American Airlines co-branded card portfolio as well as increased uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment. This was largely offset by lower seasonal volumes and refinements to loss assumptions.

U.S. Cards generated positive operating leverage and delivered net income of $732 million with an RoTCE of 19.2%.

Turning to Slide 15, we show results for all other on a managed basis, which includes Corporate/Other and legacy franchises and excludes divestiture-related items. Revenues were up 15%, driven by growth in legacy franchises, largely offset by a decline in Corporate/Other.

Growth in legacy franchise was driven by Mexico consumer, which included the impact of Mexican peso appreciation, momentum in underlying business drivers and a gain on the sale of an investment, partially offset by the impact of continued reduction from our closed exit and wind-down markets. The decline in Corporate/Other was driven by lower NII, which included a lower benefit from cash and securities reinvestment resulting from actions taken to reduce Citi's asset sensitivity in a lower interest rate environment, partially offset by higher NIR.

Expenses were down 4%, driven by lower legal and transformation expenses as well as expenses related to closed exits and wind-downs and professional services expenses. This was primarily offset by higher severance and the impact of FX translation. Cost of credit was $400 million, primarily consisting of net credit losses of $371 million driven by loans in Mexico.

To close, we've included our full year 2026 outlook on Slide 16. While there remains a lot of uncertainty, at this point our overall expectations are unchanged. Subject to macro and market conditions, we continue to expect NII ex-Markets up approximately 5% to 6%, NIR ex-Markets growth driven by momentum in Services, Banking and Wealth and an efficiency ratio of around 60%.

In terms of credit, we expect a total U.S. credit card NCL rate of between 4% and 4.5%, which is lower than the aggregate of the expectations that we provided previously for branded cards and retail services, reflecting the delinquency trends and loss performance we've seen year-to-date. And the ACL will continue to be a function of the macroeconomic environment and business volumes. Additionally, we remain well positioned to return capital to shareholders and plan to provide more detail on our expectations for share repurchases going forward at our Investor Day in May.

As we take a step back, the results in the first quarter represent significant progress towards our goal of improved firm-wide and business performance. We remain steadfast and focused on executing our transformation and confident in delivering our RoTCE target of 10% to 11% this year, and we look forward to laying out the path to delivering higher returns beyond that at Investor Day.

With that, Jane and I would be glad to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Glenn Schorr with Evercore ISI.

Wonder if we -- I think we get the great trading and banking results. I want to talk about Services, if we could. One is if you could give any color on the $4 trillion win on the BlackRock middle office, servicing ETF platform or portfolio?

And then two, maybe bigger picture, talk about what you think maybe I and the rest of us could be underappreciating in terms of the growth outlook in services, including tokenization as a good thing as opposed to maybe the threat that people might think it is.

Glenn, good to hear from you. Look, Services' exceptional performance this quarter comes from successfully executing the strategy that Shahmir and his team precisely outlined at our Investor Day 2 years ago and then going beyond it. We've told everyone this is a through-the-cycle business, which consistently delivers strong returns in a range of environments. And this quarter, the team did just that. Revenues up 17%, deposits up 16%, fees up 14%, returns at 27%. This is firing on all cylinders.

But part of your question, why is this business growing so much? So the growth is coming from deepening with existing clients, new client acquisition and new product innovations. Our investments over the last few years, I think, are best demonstrated by the 40% growth in new client mandates. We have a very high retention of existing client business, and we have what can only be described as exceptional win rates, right? We are the leading franchise not only in share but in innovation. And you're seeing momentum across the board.

For example, as you point out, in digital assets, we are leading in tokenization. We've been investing in this for many years. I've talked about it on many of the recent calls on this. This is a benefit for us in driving and meeting more of our client needs in an always-on world and an instant world. You're seeing us in real-time payments where we are doing a lot of business with the global e-commerce juggernauts.

And as you say, in Security Services, we laid out a strategy of growing share with North American asset managers, ETF and in other spaces. And frankly, BlackRock is the most notable win we've had, it is far from the only. And we're also benefiting from our focus on fee generation, which continues to make over 30% of our revenues across different macro environments.

So there's a reason we call Services our crown jewel. It is incredibly durable. While our offerings are deeply embedded in our client operations that creates lasting relationships and stable deposits. There is always a flight to quality when there are things going on in the world and we are quality.

Maybe we can just follow up with a lot going on in the world. There was some conversation about linking you to some interest in being a bigger retail bank in the United States. Watching you fold the business into Wealth and tweaking the strategy, I know that lack of low-cost deposits has been a thing in limiting your profitability in the past, but you seem to be getting by now without that. I wonder if you could just comment in terms of just aspirations or not on that front.

Let me kick off. I want to be crystal clear. We are only interested in and focused on organic growth, period, end of story, for the whole firm. We have achieved a lot in the last 5 years. We have a lot more to do and there is a large organic growth opportunity ahead of us across all five of our businesses. And that is what we're focused on. And we're excited about it.

So I would say, Glenn, and for everyone listening on the call, if you walk away from this call thinking of nothing else, let it be this: Citi has a lot of momentum, and we're not going to be distracted from it.

Now let's turn to the question about the Retail Bank and what are we looking at there. The retail branch network, it's 650 branches, the deposit base that we have across Wealth and the Retail Bank in the U.S. is about $284 billion. The footprint is a targeted one. It's in six urban markets with an affluent client base that covers 1/3 of the nation's high net worth and affluent households. And that's 40% of the ultra-high-net households.

So it's highly aligned with the Wealth business. It's an important source of clients for our investment franchise. And we saw a lot of top line momentum from the franchise last year. It was up 21% on the Retail Bank. And we look forward to continue improving its profitability and its performance and realizing the synergies between it and Wealth organically.

Our next question comes from Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo.

I just wanted to like for you to be even more clear than you were already, so you're only pursuing organic growth. Does that mean that Citi is not pursuing a deal or an acquisition? It's just there's been so many articles and as investors say to me, where there is smoke, there's fire. There have been so many articles about Citi pursuing an acquisition. So are you saying Citi is not pursuing a deal, you're not thinking about Citi pursuing a deal and that's 1,000% off the table?

I am always transparent. I'm always straightforward with you. I want it to be crystal clear, we are not interested in anything other than organic growth.

Okay. And then a separate question as it relates to the transformation. You're now up to 90% done. And I guess the question you can answer is, since you're done with the safety and soundness part of the transformation, I have a tough time reconciling while the consent order is still on, when regulators are focused on safety and soundness, but I'm sure you put your best foot forward in that argument, but what you can answer is the last 10%, is there last-mile problem with the last 10% of the transformation? Or is this continuing to move forward? And what is that last 10% and what's left?

Yes. So there is no challenges for us ahead. 2025 was a real turning point for us on the transformation, and we just continued the strong execution into 2026. We're finished with the vast majority of the work. As I've said earlier, 90% of the transformation programs are now at or mostly at Citi's target state, and they're operating in BAU mode.

So what does that mean? What's left? For each major body of work, what you have to do is define -- we defined our target state and the work that needs to be done to achieve that target state. We are at or nearly at those Citi-defined target states for all the bodies of work, except our data programs. And the remaining work of that 10% is primarily related to data used in our regulatory reporting.

And Mike, I'm pleased with our progress on this. We are executing well. However, once we are operating well at our target state, what happens next? We pass that work over to our independent audit team for validation. Once it's validated, each major body of work is then handed over to our regulators, and they go through their assessment. They move to their closure process when they are satisfied with the work. And this takes time, and let's be very clear, they control the time line. So completing the work is just the beginning of the end.

From an investor point of view, you can see the transformation expenses have started to come down as we complete the different bodies of work. This is helping create capacity for investments in AI and other strategic business priorities. And at Investor Day, Mike, I will detail the many benefits that we have been gaining from the transformation.

Our next question comes from John McDonald with Truist Securities.

Gonzalo, I was wondering if you could give a little bit of a take on the new Basel and G-SIB proposals and what they mean for Citi. Any initial estimates on the impact if they were approved as proposed?

All right. Well, thank you, John, and good morning to everyone. Pleased to be here. As we look into the rules, our expectation is that overall, there will be a net benefit to Citi. You have seen that in the estimates from the regulatory agencies as it relates to the Category I and II banks. And we see a moderate net benefit on what has been published. But of course, when you look at the full stack with the stress capital buffer, we expect an even additional benefit there.

Some puts and takes, of course, when you think about RWAs. And those pieces related to Basel III, you have the components of retail and corporate credit providing a benefit, and that mitigated by the operational risk, the CVA and the market risk, as you probably would expect. And then on the other side, on G-SIB, even if we probably have feedback from regulators there. At the same time, you can see in the G-SIB, there's benefit from the coefficient going back to 2019 as we have been advocating for. Thank you.

So does that result in a net benefit to Citi at this point, Gonzalo, in terms of the RWA presumably up a little bit and the G-SIB down a little bit. Is there a net benefit that you see on the initial proposal?

Moderate net benefit. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. And then just a question for you also on the efficiency ratio. You started off very strong at 58%. Even with the big severance in the quarter, could you give some context to the target for 60% for the full year? What are the puts and takes if we're starting at 58%, I assume there's some seasonality from the first quarter, but just walk through the 60% target versus starting so strong at 58%.

Thank you Very much, John. I'm glad you kind of answered your own question there, given how much you know about us. So that's good to see. And maybe before I get into the specifics, maybe it's worth grounding ourselves in how we think about expenses, right? Our approach is really to maintain very strong cost discipline on a tactical basis and in addition, is to be driving structural efficiencies over time so that we can enable and allow ourselves to make the targeted investments that we think are necessary in order to drive our returns consistently over time to a higher place. So that's really our mantra and what we're focused on.

So when you look at and you break down those expenses for the quarter and you have that 7% growth, obviously, and provided 14% revenue growth which drives that 400-basis point improvement in operating efficiency, you have the effect of the severance that you mentioned there, and you can see at the bottom of the page, we provided on earnings. You have FX playing a role, of course, the revenue-driven costs and transactional costs attached to that revenue that you can see in transactional revenues and costs and also in some of the compensation pieces.

And we're also making targeted investments, right? We've done it in Services, we're doing it in Banking, we're doing it in Wealth. And for us, it's important to be able to have that balance. And so as we look through the year, we're comfortable where we're sitting with around 60% for operating efficiency. And it's primarily on the basis of, yes, you alluded to it, there's seasonality that comes with the first quarter. Usually, Markets has the strongest quarter of the year on the first, and that is true in this case as well. And we also think it's important to be able to balance that seasonality as well as recognize that we're trying to make targeted investments so that we can get our returns to be higher, right?

Our objective in my mind, is very simple, right? We're focused on driving sustainably-improving returns over time, not just to give you short-term upside. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America.

I guess just following up on that, so Gonzalo and Jane, appreciate the seasonality in the business. But when sort of putting together the momentum you have, the way you're talking about sort of just across businesses, when we look at the 13% return on tangible equity that you earned this quarter, I have a hard time thinking why it should go down to the 10% to 11% range, even adjusting for some of that seasonality on expenses and Markets revenue. Just maybe frame it, if you think there are areas where Citi may be over-earning in any given quarter that's boosting the RoTCE to 13%? And if that logic is missing something?

Let me jump in with one point, and I'm going to go British on you. One first -- one good-rate first quarter does not a full year make. The first quarter is always the strongest. And we do have an unclear macro environment ahead and we want to continue investing.

So I think what you're hearing from us clearly is we have confidence in being able to deliver the 10% to 11%. We want to keep investing in the business, as Gonzalo was just talking about. Our revenue growth is important. We'll be talking through the investments we want to make to continue the pretty impressive revenue growth we've had the last few years and intend to continue having. So I -- we just make it as simple as that.

Got it. And I guess, maybe just quickly on the capital front, reflects the -- it was good to see buybacks ramp up this quarter. As we look forward, do you think we stay in a holding pattern in terms of the CET1 ratio where it ended this quarter? Like how do we think about incremental capital leverage at Citi beyond just optimizing how capital is deployed?

Thank you, Ebrahim. I think a couple of things stand out. Of course, for those that are referencing the deck, you can go to Page 9, and you can see there at the bottom left of the slide, kind of it goes to your -- to the core of your question. We have guided in the past that our objective was to, through this year, be at around 12.6%. And so we're basically there as it relates to Q1. But let me walk you through for a second on what has been driving that.

First, you can see that in this quarter, right, basically reducing the excess that we had above our regulatory capital and the management buffer that we have carried for some time. So that gives you a signal of how we're basically at or around where we wanted to be.

Now we came at this from a couple of angles, right? First, the earnings power that you saw in the quarter, right, which was very strong. And in addition, we closed the sale of our Russia entity in the middle of the quarter. That released within the quarter about $4 billion of capital, and we've been very thoughtful and active in thinking about the deployment of that capital. You can actually see it even on the slide and through the results that RWA deployment is really to anchor the activities that we're driving with our clients and the intense engagement that we have with them. It's no surprise that Markets also had a very strong quarter on the back of the support that we gave.

So as you see us -- and I'm using this as a micro example of how we think about it. So that hopefully is helpful. You had an event-driven component. Obviously, you had earnings, which, over time, will be the primary driver, but you have an event-driven component. A part of that goes to support accretive growth return opportunities for our businesses. And in addition, another piece goes into the buybacks that we just announced for the quarter, which are a high watermark at $6.3 billion. And obviously, there will be more to come as we go into Investor Day. Thank you.

I'd jump in with just the three observations as well. First of all, G-SIB is still gold-plated relative to the Basel standard. So the economy has grown significantly since the original framework was created, but the current proposal doesn't fully account for that growth. We're going to be very active in advocating for that as you've been hearing from some of the other bank CEOs.

Secondly, there is still material duplication between the NPR and the current stress capital buffer for operational risk, for market risk, for CVA, and that needs to be eliminated in the revised Fed SCB model.

And the third piece, which I know you've heard from us on many occasions, our SCB still does not reflect our strategy. So fully, the divestitures we've made, other elements of it and really the risk profile the bank has today, which is so different from what it was in the past. So I think those three elements are things that we're obviously going to be active on. And I hope will also be helping us going forward.

Our next question comes from Jim Mitchell with Seaport Global.

I think we all appreciate the breakout of the Card business on its own, and we can see some solid profitability there. But it does also highlight, I guess, the low profitability of the Consumer Branch Banking segment. I know we'll hear more of this at Investor Day, but can you just kind of discuss what the issues are there and what you see as the opportunities to improve efficiency and returns in that segment?

Thank you, Jim. So I'm assuming -- it broke down there for a little bit, but I'm taking your question as more focused on the Retail Bank, right, and how we think about the return profile. So if you look at what we did...

Yes.

Yes, thank you. Thanks for confirming it. So if you look at our RoTCE for the quarter, and that's an all-in. I know we've restated in the supplement, you can actually see the history there. You can see that our RoTCE at 10.8%. Of course, it's not where we want it to be. And of course, we have more work to do. But if you think about it from -- going back to a year, right, it's almost doubled in the year since. So Jane was alluding a little bit to this earlier. We have made progress both in our Retail Bank franchise as well as in our Wealth franchise in terms of driving consistent revenue growth and positive operating leverage. And that will take us home. That's basically the simplest version.

So if you look at last year, the Wealth business in aggregate with this new recasted element was growing at 16% revenue and 1% expenses. That's 15% operating leverage. If you look at this quarter, you can see the 11% and the 1%. So another quarter of very strong operating leverage, and that comes on the back of the good momentum that we have on deposit volumes, mix management, pricing management that give us the confidence that there's sustainability there as well as the good levels of activity and the focus on NNIA and driving client investment assets so that we can, over time, also balance the business there between investments and deposits.

The more quarters we can put together in the future with the same kind of profile around solid revenue growth and maintaining the discipline that Andy and the team have kept on driving continuous productivity while still investing for growth, the closer we're going to be getting to the ranges that you would expect and that we would push and expect of ourselves as well. So I have good confidence, and you can kind of see the momentum. We know we have to show it still, but you can see in the recent past that we made the progress and I have confidence in the immediate future. Thank you.

Right. Great. And maybe just as a follow-up and pivoting to just private credit. Any thoughts and detail on your exposures and how you're thinking about the credit risk there would be helpful.

Sure. Thank you. So maybe a couple of thoughts there. Maybe let me step back. First, I feel very good about our position. We wanted to provide additional transparency and disclosure. You can see that on Page 23. But let me start with what gives me comfort across a range of corporate exposures, including our private credit piece, and I'll go there as well in a second, right?

First, we have a very strong risk appetite framework, right? When you think about customer selection, right, we're very rigorous there. You know we do business with global multinational companies with top-tier sponsors and asset managers. These are folks that have strong balance sheet and have the ability to withstand different environments. And secondly, we are not one product relationships, right? We are, in most cases, multicountry, multiproduct, multiyear relationships. So that gives us confidence.

The second piece is we have very strong protections, right? And we look at concentrations, which range from single name to country to geography to sector to industry and across the board, we look for correlations to make sure that we're not missing things, right, that may be linked in sometimes hidden way. You have seen the credit performance, right, with NCLs and NALs, both low and stable. You have seen us also be very prudent in terms of reserves, right? And so we feel we're adequately reserved there.

And then last but not least, we are constantly stress testing our portfolios in the private credit space and in all the spaces to make sure that both for a range of macroeconomic environments but also for event-driven aspects that we're passing our own test, and we're comfortable with how we're sitting there. So the constant monitoring, the risk capital framework all play a role.

Now we gave you a bit more clarity because we thought it was important to provide, you can see it's not a significant exposure for us, right, at $22 billion of loans, 98% investment-grade, and that's because we have ample subordination, right, in terms of the position that we take and all the protections that I was alluding to. We also have additional protections in terms of our collateral. We have fraud controls. We utilize third-parties where appropriate so that we just don't rely on attestations and warranties. And so we feel very good and comfortable that we are able to navigate a range of environments with the portfolio, and it's all anchored in the strength of our risk appetite that we built over time. This is not built in a day. It comes from years of constantly strengthening.

Our next question comes from Manan Gosalia with Morgan Stanley.

Gonzalo, I just wanted to clarify, as you have some of these business exits, I know you get a temporary benefit from CTA. Are you saying that, that gives you the opportunity to be more nimble on your capital deployment strategy, whether it's in buybacks or in the Markets business as you get that benefit between the announcement and the actual deconsolidation?

All right. Thank you, Manan, for the question. So what I would say is, and I mentioned a little bit earlier, right, we -- for us, it is really a balance, right? When we have events like in the case of Russia that we just saw, and I'll allude to your comment, which I think was a little more specific to Banamex, right, as it relates to the deconsolidation. What I'll mention is we're always looking for opportunities to deploy that capital constructively in accretive ways to support our businesses and support our clients.

I think Q1 just gives me magically a very good example of our behavior. So you can actually see it come through in real life versus just me describing in general terms. But with -- on the basis of -- on the back of the Russia event with the $4 billion of relief, you can -- you have seen us both support our businesses and anchor some of the results that you just saw in the quarter from Markets as an example, and a couple of other businesses. And at the same time, you're seeing the highest level of buyback that we've done in any quarter on the $6.3 billion. So -- and that's supported by an event like that.

Now as it relates to Banamex, as we've alluded in the past, there is a temporary capital benefit that happens both on the 25% sell-down that we announced and executed during the fourth quarter last year as well as one to come when we complete the closing of the second tranche of the sell-down of the 24% that we announced recently, which will happen over the next few months, right? And that's temporary in nature. As you were alluding to it too, clearly, you've cited all of us very well, Manan, which is at deconsolidation, you can expect the CTA to come back, right? We've been clear in the past that, that will attract about an $8.5 billion or so CTA adjustment that will flow through the P&L, but in aggregate, it's capital neutral.

Got it. Okay. Great. And then maybe just pivoting over on the expense side. You've been pretty clear that as part of the transformation projects, Citi is not just delivering on the ask from the regulators, but also taking the opportunity to invest in modernizing. So I guess my question is just beyond the transformation. How do you view your current tech stack versus where you want it to be? And how are you thinking about tech spend going forward?

Yes. We'll go into a lot of detail about this at Investor Day in terms of laying out not only in technology, we'll spend quite a bit of time on AI and the structured strategic approach that we're taking to this firm-wide. So you're -- in the 3 weeks, you're going to get a lot of clarity around all of this. I feel good about the modernization we've done as we've moved our tech stack from a multiplicity of different platforms into singular platforms and at the same time, making sure that we've got good simple -- singular processes end-to-end that we have been working on simplifying and automating over the last few years.

And I think we feel good about that side. We feel good about the investments we've been making in leading-edge innovations in technology like Citi Token Services like Payment Express in Services. I can give you a long list in Wealth and what we're doing in Markets, et cetera, but we'll leave that for the 7th. And I think above everything, the other area we're really happy about is the investments we've made in our data architecture, where we are on a single repository for all of our data for institutional and a single one for consumer, enormously beneficial in the world of AI that we're living in. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Ken Usdin with Autonomous Research.

Just a follow-up on the NII side. First of all, seeing the very strong end of period and average loan and deposit growth, and I know looking at the supplement, there's a little help from FX translation in there. But upper single-digit growth, just wondering how sustainable that is, especially on the deposit side. And if you saw any environmental-related benefits that possibly may not continue?

Thanks very much, Ken, and good to hear you. I think as we look at NII ex-Markets and maybe just to refresh everybody's mind, what we guided for the year, and it's on the deck, is 5% to 6% NII ex-Markets growth, and that is anchored by around mid-single-digit growth for both loans and deposits. We're pleased that Q1 is a good showing against that. As you highlighted, there is a bit of FX playing a role there for 7% that we delivered, but we are comfortable in that guidance.

And the part that I like the most about it is that most of that growth is really anchored on client-driven activity, right? And our commercial intensity, we're pushing to win in the market with our customers, whether it's in Services, whether it's in Wealth, both of those are driving deposits, right? Services up 16% deposits, Wealth up 4%, all of that blends to the 11% that I think you were marking. And then in terms of loans, ex-Markets, we are growing at the 5% mark, which is again in line with our guidance. And you can see that coming through in Wealth. You can see it coming through in U.S. Cards and also in Services with export financing and working capital.

So as I said, most we hear of the growth is really being driven by commercial intensity, the client engagement and how we're winning in the market with our proposition, and that's a good place to be. There are smaller contributions into it from both the pricing discipline that we've shown, right? Beta is quite stable for us. And that, to me, is a proof of our value proposition is performing, how embedded we are in our clients. We are a global network on the Services front and the quality of our advice and engagement on the Wealth business.

On the other side, I think we mentioned this before in the past is our investment securities portfolio as it rolls off through the year, we're able to reinvest it at higher rates than before. So all those pieces are helping, but it's really the client activity that drives the bus here. Thank you.

Great. And then as a follow-up to your point, the first quarter also started above the range, 7% ex-Markets year-over-year. And so I just wanted to ask, I know maybe you're still being conservative with the 5% to 6%. Can I assume that the American Airlines card is in the guidance? And why wouldn't you continue to be 7% if the volume side you just went through is pretty sustainable.

Thanks very much, Ken. I give you points for a very sneaky and smart way of asking, Ken, if I want to up the guidance. The answer is not at this stage. We are comfortable with the guidance.

Yes, first, let me answer the first part of your question. The American Airlines-Barclays portfolio that is coming in, in this second quarter is, of course, fully factored in. And we know if we feel confident in the client activity that we're seeing. And at the same time, we know that as Jane said a little bit earlier, right, for all those modelers out there, don't just do 1 x 4 because we know we have to manage through some degree of uncertainty, inflation, growth and other pieces that are playing through.

Our next question comes from Steven Chubak with Wolfe Research.

You've been crystal clear, using your words, on the commitment to focusing on organic growth. One factor which has contributed to below peer returns is the large DTA or unallocated capital base. It remains stubbornly high. The pace of DTA utilization remains pretty tepid. I think it's only been about $1 billion or so over the last 5 years. I was hoping you could speak to the drivers that would potentially support some acceleration in that DTA consumption, especially given your aversion to solving for it potentially with higher North America earnings inorganically?

Yes. I feel very good about our organic growth opportunities in North America. And you're right, the very simple driver of accelerating the DTA consumption is driving North American earnings. We are very focused on it. Every single one of our businesses is focused around it. It's also where we've been doing investing to support that growth. So this will come the good old-fashioned way, and I feel confident that we're going to be making some very good progress on this, and we'll talk a bit about that in a couple of weeks' time.

All right. Well, I anticipate a similar response in terms of additional color at Investor Day for the next question. But if you'll indulge me, I did want to ask on -- appreciate it. On the head count reduction targets, which you guys had spoken about a few years ago, I believe at the time, this was post the consent order, the head count increased from about 200,000 to 240,000, you had indicated that you would look to drive that closer to 220,000 or so employees, you're 2/3 of the way there essentially. But admittedly, we're in a very different environment where the potential for AI-driven efficiency gains are much more tangible than they necessarily were a few years ago.

I was hoping you could just speak to your approach or philosophy to head count management and resourcing just in light of this new AI regime that we're all operating in.

Well, thank you, Steven. Let me maybe highlight a couple of points there. First, you saw this quarter, a severance. We had guided that it would be a little bit higher for the quarter, and it was of about $500 million. But that will enable us to take earlier actions in the year in order to contribute to our productivity and our efficiency journey as well. And so that's one piece.

I think we've spoken in the past, you can actually see it in the quarter when you look at our head count, right, on the expense page, coming down quarter-on-quarter from the 226,000 down to 224,000 or thereabouts. We have spoken about through the year, you would expect us to be coming down on head count.

And as I said a little bit earlier, right, not only do we expect to drive expense discipline in terms of how we're driving the day-to-day. But in addition, we are focused on structural efficiencies over time. And what that means is both benefiting from the investments we've already made in our transformation where you saw us modernizing a lot of our platforms, but also what we have ahead of us in terms of continuing to drive with the support of technology, automation in our processes, further automation as well as leveraging AI to give us further opportunities to turbocharge those investments that we want to make in a self-funded way.

Our next question comes from Erika Najarian with UBS.

Just one follow-up question for me because I appreciate that we're going to have quite a day in a few weeks. So Jane, this one is for you. You talked about your stress capital buffer not reflecting your true risk profile. Obviously, we're not going to hear more on that until next year. And you've also talked about that Basel III Endgame reform and G-SIB reform is fine, but hasn't gone quite far enough.

I'm really wondering about that green bar on Slide 9 that represents your 110-basis point management buffer because even if I adjust for seasonality, as I flip through the slide in terms of business line results, again, even after adjusting for seasonality and Wealth not hitting the marks quite yet and all other, it implies sort of a much higher return profile even with this 12.7% CET1.

So I guess I'm wondering, I'm sure we'll hear about the denominator -- sorry, the numerator at Investor Day. But as we think about the denominator and we get more clarity on reform, does that make a management buffer redundant?

No. So I'm pretty clear, and I think Gonzalo has been as well what we're looking at, at the moment in terms of CET1 for the rest of the year, is looking at being sort of 100 to 110 basis points above the regulatory minimum. And that is the 100 basis points of management buffer. I think that's a good number for us at the moment, and I don't have plans to change it in the immediate future.

Our next question comes from David Chiaverini with Jefferies.

So I wanted to start with capital markets. Can you talk about the pipeline looking out to the second quarter and the rest of the year following a very strong first quarter?

So thank you. So what I think about that, let me maybe parse out -- I'm sorry, let me ask the clarifying question, David. Are you thinking more of Banking, M&A, ECM, DCM? Or were you talking more about capital markets in the Markets business?

Yes, the former rather than the latter.

Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm glad I clarified. So a couple of things, I would say. The engagement with clients in the first quarter has been very robust. You can see it, Jane alluded to this, we were advisers in the top 3 deals right on the Street, and we're pleased with the progress that we made, and we know we have more to go, and that's why we're making the investments that we're making.

When you look at the M&A pipeline, it continues to be quite strong, actually. And so we see good dialogue. Remember, we engage with global multinational corporations, right? Those have the resilience and the strength of balance sheet. And we've seen good levels of engagement and good levels of activity in the pipeline that is in front of us. Of course, if the conflict were protracted, right, and deeper over a longer period of time, that may start introducing some risk of deferrals and things like that into the second half of the year.

I think you've seen -- the other thing I would say is in the sponsor space, it's a little bit less active and a bit more cautious than on the corporate side, so corporate is very active and on the sponsor side, a bit less so. And I think what you see is selectivity, right? Selectivity in terms of -- you still see a lot of good quality deals getting done, right, in terms of IPOs, in terms of debt capital markets as well, but there is a little bit of flight into quality that plays through in an environment like this, probably not surprising, right? So more momentum on levels of activity in M&A in the high-grade space for debt and more caution and moderation in the high-yield space as well as in IPO where a lot of quality stuff is still happening, and there is a bit of risk off there.

I'd just add in that when we look at it generally, as Gonzalo was saying, most corporates have watchful, they're certainly not passive. And we've been very actively engaged with clients. It's rerouting of supply chain, hedging programs, ensuring liquidity that goes -- obviously, the pipeline of activity we have goes well beyond the capital market space. And I think we benefit in North America from some greater resiliency than other parts of the world face given the macro environment and the conflict in the Middle East.

Great. And my follow-up is more of housekeeping, but can you provide us with an update on the expected timing of the Banamex IPO?

Yes. So look, obviously, we've made significant progress on the divestiture. First step is actually going to be closing the latest tranche in the coming months as Gonzalo is talking about, at which point we'll have successfully divested 49%. And that substantially advances our ultimate full exit.

Given the accelerated pace of the sell-down that we've just done, we don't anticipate any additional stake sales in 2026 ahead of deconsolidation in early 2027. The IPO most likely would happen after that when market conditions are favorable and when the regulatory requirements are met. And as always, we're going to just carry on making sure that we exercise the ultimate full exit of Banamex in a way that optimizes value for all stakeholders as we've done so far successfully.

Our next question comes from Gerard Cassidy with RBC.

Can you guys share with me, just a follow-up on your advisory business and you're talking about pipelines. As we all know, the regulators changed their leverage loan restrictions back in November, giving, I think, banks more opportunities to finance higher-leverage deals. Can you share with us your color, have you been able to use that yet? Will you use it? Or how is -- what opportunities does that provide to help you in the advisory business?

Yes. I'll pass that to Gonzalo but just make one observation. The Fed has not changed their guidance on this. And so we're still bound by that regime. But Gonzalo, over to you.

Yes. So not related to the regulatory guidance as Jane just alluded to. But I would say in that space, we've been both deliberate and very disciplined in our risk management, right? So you have seen us expand a little bit our momentum there because we were not really that active a couple of years ago. And we've done it with a lot of care, right? We're well reserved. We're seeing basically very good loss trajectory there. It comes out in two parts. So let's think this in terms of distribution, where it's functioning well and operating normally as well as on the whole book where we see de minimis NPL. So really performing well, and we're being very thoughtful and disciplined there. Thank you.

Very good. And Jane, have you guys heard any word from the Fed, whether they're going to follow suit with the OCC and the FDIC on these changes?

I have not.

Okay. And then just to move to a different area on Consumer Cards, Gonzalo, you pointed out -- I think on Slide 14, you guys break out the general purpose versus the private label card. And I go back, and I know I'm not probably comparing apples-to-apples. But I look at the first quarter '24 slide deck, I think it's Page 9, where retail services were 33% of U.S. Card loans and now they're much lower. Again, it's probably not apples-to-apples because now it's called private label.

But here's my question. With the changes, you guys obviously have done a very good job in divesting businesses that didn't hold up their profitability to the levels you wanted to -- them to attain. With the advent of buy now, pay later, AI, is the retail private label credit card business, a business that is going to have challenges in reaching profitability levels that they need to reach because of this competition?

Thank you, Gerard. Very good question. I didn't know you were a historian there. I was trying to get back in -- play back in my memory. And unfortunately, it's in front of my boss. I was running the business at the time. So I can't say that I didn't know. So I appreciate your question there.

But now, what I would say is a couple of things. Now what we're seeing in the private label space -- and maybe there could be a contribution for what you're bringing up. But I attach it more because I've seen it even before BNPL started to play any role in terms of the lending elements. I attribute it more to changing customer behavior as it relates to borrowing preferences, right? And so -- and that's a change we have seen over a number of years.

And that's why I think I alluded to earlier in the conference, and I think you're going to hear a lot more from Pam at Investor Day, you can see it in the numbers already, right? Our investments are really in the general purpose credit card space because that's what our clients are taking us, right? And so over time, a lot of the retailers themselves are also pivoting into co-brand relationships and some of the more successful ones like Costco that we have and many others, they have made some of those pivots because they're basically following the customer behavior there. So that's what I would say as it relates to that.

And yes, you have seen us be very disciplined in terms of return, right? So obviously, those scaled relationships do work very well as it relates to returns. But you have pockets where some of the relations have low scale, Jane had been the first one to impress upon me when I was running the business that we're not in the business of hobbies. And so we have been very disciplined about exiting smaller portfolios that -- where we didn't see a path to improved returns. And that discipline, we're going to keep. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Vivek Juneja with JPMorgan.

Just a couple of clarifications for you both. Could you dimensionalize a couple of things. One is what do you mean by -- when you say moderate capital benefit, Gonzalo, are you talking about 3%, 5%, any range in terms of -- under the current proposal for capital benefit?

Vivek, first of all, thank you, and good to hear you. The modeler in me really appreciate the question, but I would say we're not giving specifics at this time. Thank you...

We'll be able to do that when we get the final proposal.

Okay. DTA, Jane, since you talked about it, any sense of -- the pace has been very slow as the question came up earlier. What's the pace do you expect it gets to in the next couple of years because...

I'll give the CEO answer, which is better and then pass it over to Gonzalo.

Yes. So Vivek, maybe let me give you a bit -- clear -- I will be able to give you some precision just to make up for my last one there where I didn't want to go into specifics.

So first quarter, the disallowed DTA increased by about $200 million quarter-over-quarter. Now that is attributable -- and we have this, I think, every year, that's attributable to higher U.S. income that was offset by seasonality of the [ carryback ] support. So that usually happens.

Now as you see us go through the year, and we've been clear on trying to increase U.S. earnings over time. We would expect that the disallowed DTA would reduce this year in excess of $800 million. That's roughly what we expect. We're very focused as we -- and again, you're going to hear more at Investor Day on what's the multiyear path for that so that we can continue to accelerate that trajectory and really burn down that disallowed DTA. Thank you.

Okay. We'll look forward to hearing more at the Investor Day on this.

The final question comes from Chris McGratty with KBW.

Great. Just going back to the tech AI conversation for a moment. I'm interested in how today's outlays and -- could ultimately yield ROE benefits. And how are you thinking about that when you are putting together this Investor Day over the next few weeks. How does that influence the medium-term ROE outlook?

You're going to hear a lot more about AI at Investor Day and sort of how we are approaching it. I think with the rapid advances of the models, of agentic AI, we have established a more strategic, structured firm-wide approach, and that's looking at four different buckets, which will ultimately yield ROE benefits.

One is around business strategies that's covering revenue generation, client experience improvements and also potential changes to our business model. And so many with a direct driver to either revenue growth or to RoTCE. Second one, which you've heard me talk more often about is productivity and end-to-end process improvement. And that body of work that's underway is further simplifying our most complex and manually-intensive processes leveraging both AI and automation. So that's a direct operating efficiency benefit with investments needed to get there, which we're making.

Final area, it would be the defensive capabilities covering cyber fraud, AML, general risk management. So I see that as issue avoidance. And we're also looking at the longer-term talent and workforce implications. So it's -- our approach is structured and deliberate. It's not just about tech, it's about people and our processes and our business model and that's just trying to give you a bit of a framework for what we'll run through in 3 weeks and how that then translates into growth, how it helps translate into our RoTCE benefits, wallet capture, et cetera.

That's helpful. And I guess my follow-up would be global rates are moving in various directions at any moment. Interested in just the broader rate sensitivity, domestic, international, and how we should think about the whole Citi entity?

Right. Thanks very much. Yes. And I know we provide disclosures on IRE, which even though it is a static measure, the ones that we disclosed, gives you a little bit of a sense, at least from a risk management perspective. But let me backtrack for a second, right? So because your question is also linked to NII ex-Markets and what one could expect.

So I'll just repeat a little bit what I said earlier on NII ex-Markets, which is the vast majority of the growth that we have baked in for the year, that is anchored to our guidance is really driven by the client engagement, the client momentum that we have across the business, and that's reflected into our deposit and loan volume growth, right? That really drives the bus as it relates to that.

Now when you were talking about interest rate sensitivity, you have two pieces for us. One is U.S. dollar sensitivity. You have seen over time, number one, very actively manage our balance sheet and being deliberate there and bringing down our asset sensitivity over time to be more or less in a relatively neutral position today as it relates to U.S. rates. We like that position given what's going on out there and not only the direction that we all thought rates were going to have, but even in the current situation, I think we like that position. And then on the non-USD rates, right, we're structurally more asset sensitive. That has to do with our strategy. It's well diversified sensitivity, right, because it's across 65-plus currencies, and it's very, very much anchored by our Services and Wealth franchises that we have around the world. Thank you.

There are no further questions. I'll turn the call over to Jenn Landis for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining the call. We look forward to talking to you this afternoon with any follow-up questions. Thank you.

This concludes the Citi First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. You may now disconnect.

Welcome to RBC Financial Institutions Conference. Thank you for all of you attending and really, Jane doesn't really need much of an introduction. She's obviously a Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at Citigroup. This is her fifth year as CEO at Citigroup. And I was doing some number checking and the stock is up under her tenure, 53% versus the Bank Index, which is up 31%. So you're outperforming the Index, which is great.

It's getting going, though.

Which is the most important part. As you may know, the market cap of Citigroup is about $187 billion, and it's truly one of our big global banks in the United States.

And so we're going to have some questions during the fireside chat. And Jane, maybe we could start off with given the Citi's broad and deep global reach. Can you share with us -- talk to us about the dynamics that you're seeing around the world right now? And what are you hearing from your corporate and investor clients? And any thoughts on the consumer sentiment activity that's going on?

Well, it's quite a lot in there. Look, I kick off just by the underlying economy, it's doing just fine around the world. And activity is good. Business momentum is good. The consumer spending was up about 5% in February here in the states. We're seeing a pretty fiscally responsible consumer as well, which is probably where some of the sentiment has translated into some more mindfulness in it and the balance sheets are in pretty decent health.

On the Corporate side, I think particularly here in the States, I hope it's very much on the front foot. You're seeing strong investment both in AI as well as into general automation and technology investment that's going on, pretty vibrant M&A market linked in as well. As companies are looking at consolidation and opportunities really to move momentum forward. And I think particularly given everything going on in the Middle East, most relevantly, balance sheets are probably the strongest I've seen in my tenure, and they haven't been weak during that tenure.

So again, corporate is in good shape. And we've also got some other positive drivers that are coming through. deregulation is making a difference. We're seeing things getting done faster, more confidence out there. And then we're also going to have the tax bill benefit, it's coming through.

So the underlying side, particularly in the States in good shape. I'm just back from Europe. Germany, definitely feeling much more positive about their outlooks. And Europe generally feeling this year will be better than last year. So the big wildcard is obviously the Middle East. And when we look at the big question really is the duration and the containability, if that's a word, of particularly what's going on in the straits. And we don't know the answer on that one.

But if I look at -- I was chatting with our economist yesterday, and his view, which I think is the right one from what we're seeing is, if the oil price is over $100 for the next 4 to 6 weeks, say it comes down to about the $85 mark for the second quarter and then below $70, which is more in line where inventories, other things are in the second half of the year. That probably shaves 15 bps, 1-5, of global GDP growth. And part of that is there's a lot of physical inventory out there still.

Now if it's longer than that in terms of above $100 oil price for a longer period, then you're looking at a very different scenario. And that has ramifications for inflation. So I think, the central banks have a tough job at the moment. They're all set globally for bringing rates down. And they're in a wait-and-see mode at the moment. And they will be in suspension for a little bit, I suspect.

So they've got the tougher job and particularly here in the States because the labor market is -- the supply side is not a challenge, but we've all seen a clear softening on the demand side. So I think the Central Bank, the Fed is going to have a tougher job between the balance of, if inflation is picking up, because of the oil price, and you've got the labor market on the other side, where do they land?

But if you go despite everything, Corporate activity, very strong at the moment. Large-cap M&A is not missing a beat right now where we see a bit more of a pause is, say, middle market private equity, equity capital markets, IPOs, the best names continuing forward.

I think probably going to be a little bit more selective with some of the smaller IPOs as to which ones will be up to come or not within in the larger space, not. And the credit markets have been very constructive. If anything, right now, they've been more focused on AI than they have on the oil price.

And obviously, for investors, I think the equities guys, we're better positioned in the equity markets. We've seen a few of the hedge funds with some pretty hefty losses on the rates front, but not for everyone across the board and commodities we all know about.

So you put it all together, the other noises we see in the markets around private credit. And what I'd say there is we do need to just get some facts on the table.

Private credit is a $1.7 trillion market, right? We just wiped $1 trillion of crypto and never no one missed a beat. It is the retail investors are not a major investor in the space yet. And it's not a levered part of the market. It's 1, 1.2 so leveraging there. So I'm more sanguine on private credit. There'll be some idiosyncratic risk in there from folks don't have credit standards, but I don't think it's a systemic issue.

Where it gets a little more concerning would be if the Middle East crisis goes on for a long time, and you see a convergence of the concerns on AI valuations on the disruption risk into business models from AI. We're seeing it obviously with SaaS software, some of the business services and private credit all coming together and getting and converging, that would be more problematic. So that's what we're keeping an eye on.

No. Very insightful. I appreciate that. Can we follow up on the regulatory comment? Obviously, we have the stress capital buffers and CCAR coming up very shortly. Can you talk about what you're thinking in that standpoint from what the regulators recalibration? But also in terms of how do you look at it from a capital perspective as well?

Yes. Well, I think, we're going to know a lot more in about 2 weeks, that's we're hearing the time frame for getting the proposal through as it comes out of the FDIC, the Fed and the OCC on Basel III and GCIB. So I think, we'll know as it were the, worst case as it were on capital. And I think we're all optimistic, but let's wait 2 weeks, isn't that long, we'll get a better sense around it.

And then SCB, I -- well, it's always frustrating when you're expecting your SCB to come down that you have to wait a year. I would much rather -- and I think all the bank CEOs would say the same thing. We would much rather have the right models developed and then have that giving the market and ourselves much more certainty around the stress capital buffer system for multiple years. Then have a pillar system or some other approach that was more of a Band-Aid, getting accurate and better models will, certainly, from Citi's point of view, be very beneficial in bringing the SCB to be an accurate reflection of our risk and our risk is coming down.

And then the other piece is, it's good to see the focus on material financial risk. I mean, from the supervisory side, the last 15 years have -- they've not been banal, but they have been benign. And I think, thinking that it's going to continue being benign for the next few years is probably a tad optimistic.

So having a supervisory focus much more on material financial risks is very important for the next few years. So I think it's from an investor point of view, you want the supervisors focused on what is important for the future, safety and soundness and not on things that are not. I'm optimistic about our capital, because I see the risk of our bank materially different from what it used to be way back when, and I look forward to our SCB reflecting that.

That is very good. Yes. No, we're all very anxious to see the proposal when it comes out from Washington later this month. So that's good.

Maybe shifting over to the first quarter. You touched a little bit about the market conditions. Can we dive into what you're seeing in the overall growth in investment banking this quarter as well as markets? And then anything else you'd like to call out into the quarter or ahead of the Investor Day in May?

It's always lovely being asked that question with a few more weeks to be left in the quarter when you've got an uncertainty in the Middle East going on. So with the appropriate caveat of, let's see, how the events unfold. I'd say for the first 2 months and a bit of the quarter, it's been good activity. So our perspective as I sit here right now is when I think about investment banking fees, we're expecting mid-teens growth in fees for the quarter year-over-year. And that's really been M&A, as I talked about before, and ECM, that are the big drivers.

Same guidance for markets. Our markets business, we're expecting mid-teens as well year-over-year, and that's both been strength in equities and fixed income. Obviously, that can change in 2.5 weeks, but I feel pretty good with that where we sit right now.

And then in terms of where looking at overall, we will be expecting, as I talked about at the last earnings call, around about a 60% operating efficiency for the full year. But you can expect us to be front-loading some of the severance expenses and other elements in the first quarter just because of obviously that, that is better for our shareholders and for ourselves when we do that.

And you'll get the benefit in the first quarter earnings of seeing the Retail Bank sitting into Wealth and then the clarity of what our cards franchise looks like. So I hope that, will make everyone even though you have to change some of the models around, it will make it much easier to forecast some of the pieces going forward. So short-term pain for long-term gain.

And the Investor Day is obviously coming up in May.

Honestly, I can't wait. So we're looking forward to that because we'll -- I think you'll see the confidence we've got in the 10% to 11% RoTCE for this year. And with a lot of good tailwinds behind us. And also, we've really -- we've tested a lot for different macro environments. I think all banks have had to in the last few years are making sure the model is pretty resilient under different scenarios and good diversity of businesses there. So we'll be looking forward to laying out the path from here.

Great. You touched on the 10% to 11% RoTCE. Are you feeling confident on that? And then what are the drivers that you see in efficiencies to get to that number?

So yes, I feel good about that. I think we all do. Gonzalo is sitting here in the audience with me has been looking at everything with a good fresh pair of eyes as well. If we unpick it on the revenue side, I think you've seen us with sort of 7% revenue growth for the last few years, despite the various challenges in the environment.

You look at the NII numbers, I'm looking forward the rest of the year, expecting to see some good deposit growth. We've had benefit of a flight to quality of late, but we're just expecting to see good growth in NII from volumes. We also see the benefit in mix as well as seeing some of the investments we have in treasury getting reinvested. And that provides a very, very good offset to a potentially declining rate environment, the timing of that's TBD. So good growth on NII ex markets.

Similarly, NIR, feel good on the growth there. We'll see it from services. We'll see it in Wealth Banking. So markets, I find it very hard to predict exactly what markets revenues are going to be over the course of the year when you sit here in March. So I sort of decline to comment on that one.

And then on the operating efficiency and expense side, as I said, the expenses we'll be looking at around the 60% number for operating efficiency. But as you go beneath that, you'll see both productivity saves as well as investments. So the different components on the expense base, we've got productivity benefits from investments that we've been making. We'll have the transformation costs as we're -- as I mentioned in the last earnings call, over 80% of the programs are at the target state that we've laid out. That enables us to bring the cost base down associated with that.

So you'll see that in head count and expenses starting in this quarter. We also got stranded costs with Russia getting closed, China is done. Mexico, other pieces getting into a strong position that enables to bring stranded cost down. And then the benefits of the investments we made in transformation and others translating into productivity.

On the severance side, I expect it to be a little bit lower than last year, but as I say, we're really front-loading that into the quarter. And then on capital, we continue with the discipline and we love giving capital back to the shareholders if we don't see the opportunity to deploy it at high returns internally.

So a bit -- very much the same, as you've seen from Citi over the last few years. I think there's been a consistency. Revenue growth positive operating leverage, capital discipline, improving returns and investing in the businesses for the long-term growth at the same time as driving the productivity improvement. So I hope this year is just continues on nicely as more of the same.

There you go. And you touched a little bit on the Wealth and the Retail Bank coming together. Maybe you've had some real momentum and success in that area. Can you talk to us about the drivers of what you see going forward? And then also, what are the synergies that you're looking for now that the Retail Bank is included in the Wealth Management area?

So, Andy has been doing a super job. I think what we've been doing most of late, and we put a lot of it within the first couple of years he was in, he was getting the platforms put together, getting the synergies in. You saw a lot of the cost benefits coming through. The focus at the moment, we've been continuing to attract really excellent talent as well as retaining some of the -- we've got some fabulous talent in different parts of the business in the world. And we've been doing a lot of work on the CIO capabilities and product, Kate Moore and the team have got a fantastic set of capabilities and proposition now.

We've also been putting a lot of work into the investment platform. So, Keith Glenfield and the team there have been making sure that we've got a platform agnostic, platform and offerings. So we're not pushing our own product. We're very much agnostic as to where it comes from. I think that's a competitive advantage, building out in alternatives and the core investment offering.

And then we've got some fantastic partners: BlackRock, iCap, Palantir, looking at how can we disrupt, how can we improve client experience, and how can we also leverage our partner scale. So you'll continue to see us very focused on quality, NNIA, on investment growth, in the investment platform to drive our returns, but also good discipline in the balance sheet and getting returns there. So I feel good about that.

And then good timing for putting the Retail Bank and Wealth together. Seeing Retail Bank had obviously been a drag in the USPB franchise. It's had very good revenue growth in the low to mid-20s.

As you saw in the recent numbers, Wealth had strong growth and revenue momentum and underlying momentum. So, we'll put them together. It won't change the -- it changes the RoTCE as you'll see, but it doesn't change our expectation to continue growing the RoTCE in line with the targets that we laid out.

And the synergies are just, they are so obvious. There's real value of having a deposit franchise together in one. I think that's another area. You'll see as investors the benefit of seeing what does the full U.S. deposit franchise look like without having to flip through supplements and other things. But the heart of it is, we're very -- our Retail Banks in the six markets where most of the -- a lot of the Wealth is in the states. It's about 35% of the high net worth households are in the six markets that we've got the strong holds in. And so, that ability to have a pretty seamless client experience all the way up, the client elevator is an obvious one.

And we could see it when we had USPB and the Wealth franchise with the referrals going across, that we have $3 trillion of assets in the U.S. of us with clients with an existing relationship with their operating account for the day-to-day finances and we've been that forever. So we're highly confident particularly given the investments in client experience, the platform work we're doing in Palantir and others that we will be providing a very modern and highly appealing Wealth proposition into that Retail Bank client base.

I think you can tell I'm excited by this one.

Yes. Very interesting. And the other big part, of course, of Citigroup on the consumer side is cards. And now, can you talk to us about the franchise? It shifted as a stand-alone. So how are you going to be -- what are you looking for in terms of the drivers there? Now that is a stand-alone.

You'll hear a lot from Pam at Investor Day about this, as you obviously will from all five of the business heads. So what we're seeing is we're the #3 franchise in the States. We've been investing a lot in terms of our product platforms. You've seen us launching the different strata, so that we're filling in with the premium customers. That went so beat my expectations. I think the team low-balled the numbers when they showed them to me the first time, because the growth has really been strong there.

We've also been seeing a lot of strong momentum behind loyalty and engagement that we've been investing behind. We've got American Airlines coming on board. So that's had a lot of attention in terms of building out the proposition on the rewards side in terms of the lounges. And really spectacular growth in client acquisition on that front. Also very happy where the Costco relationship has been going as well, which has been a big and important one. We've been focused on driving up the returns.

On the CRS side, I think what we've seen is consumers now prefer a general purpose card, and more of the closed-loop system. So you'll see us in terms of our growth, focusing more on the co-brand relationship and even some conversions of existing ones into co-brands as well as the proprietary cards for the growth going forward. But I'm excited about what we're going to be doing. And AI is also an area where we'll talk quite a bit about that at Investor Day because that's also providing all sorts of new possibilities.

And on the credit cards, from time to time, portfolios come up potential bidding or sales. Are there any on the horizon that you're aware of that Citi may have an opportunity to look at?

I'm not going to let our competitors know about that one. But we're very clear both with the existing ones when they're coming up for renewal as well as other opportunities. It's laser focused on the returns. We have -- if something is not cutting it on the returns in the renewal, we won't be pursuing them or we'll be looking at a very different set of economics. And the same again for new situations that come up.

The Barclays portfolio that we're taking over, for example, next month, the economics are all ones that our shareholders will be -- would say is appropriate.

And one -- because of all the different changes as recently as from January, it was talk about that 10% limit, and you were very clear on your earnings call, how you felt about it. But we haven't heard anything. Is it kind of past us now? Or is that still something that's?

Look, I think the President is rightly focused on affordability. Right? We have a very broad array of different offerings for our customer base that play into that, not only in cards, but also the Retail Bank and the like, as do many of our peers as well. And I think we've been very clear that, this is not the way to solve affordability. This is the way to crush access to credit for anyone other than the wealthy. And I don't think that's what the President would like. So I hope -- I think Congress understands that.

Yes. Coming back to the returns, the 10% to 11% RoTCE, what are you most focused on to ensure that it's higher returns are sustainable over time?

Yes. And this is what you'll hear from us a lot at Investor Day. I think we're excited just to help you see the continuity of the strategy, but where does it -- where does it take us to next. And there's a lot of tailwinds from the investments that we've made over the last few years. So that really does help us with momentum in the next 2 years and then beyond. We will be continuing to invest in acquiring new clients, deepening with existing client relationships in the product capabilities.

And AI is obviously another area where investments are driving greater productivity. They're driving opportunities in revenue. They are driving opportunities in service, and we're extremely, extremely active in that front, particularly with the new raft of models that have come out.

And we -- I've talked a bit about that before. But what you'll hear at Investor Day, will be, where do we have the -- where are we looking at the investments that will help drive the revenue growth by each of the different businesses. So you see in services where we're making investments in the product innovations that we've been talking about, new ones in markets, prime, finance as an example, in the financing space and the technology investments behind that.

You'll be hearing in banking about some more of the talent growth that we'll be investing behind. So we'll lay all of this out. We are not short of growth opportunities. And we're also, because of all the work we've done, able to bring the firm together and have much more of a one Citi approach to clients and the client coverage improvements is really helping drive the wallet share capture going forward.

We'll lay it out. We'll lay out where we see the expense opportunities, continuing to invest, but particularly as transformation, stranded costs, other elements come through. That will be a benefit for continuing improving our operating efficiency and operating leverage.

I think we have the best corporate loan portfolio on the street. That's our belief. And we have some good proof points behind that. We are a source of resiliency for our clients. We see it at the moment, Middle East, that's operating resiliency for them as they sort out supply chains, operating resiliency because our infrastructure is modernized and strong.

And then on question more financial resiliency for our clients in terms of our capital, liquidity and whenever there's a port in the storm needed, we see the flight to us in moments like this.

And then on the capital front, we continued to making sure capital is investing in high-return opportunities, things commoditized moving from that and then return of capital to our shareholders. And we'll also get the benefit of the back end of final stranded costs coming down, transformation expenses coming down, DTA getting used up here in the States. So, it's a pretty logical path to the next set of returns in the next couple of years and then towards returns that are firmly in the respectable category beyond and the team is on the mission. We'll get it done.

No, that's great. We're running out of time. So the final question, can you share with us -- we touched on -- this is your fifth year as CEO at Citi, the progress that you've made over this period. And then finally, one of the key messages that invested that you'd like investors to take away from today?

Yes. I mean, I think, we really put the foundations in place over the last few years for what Citi is for going forward. And you can feel the positive momentum behind that. Clarity of the strategy, five interconnected businesses in which we have the right to win. And we are advancing in terms of our market share, wallet position and others in all of those businesses and getting those synergies and connectivity from them.

At the same time, really good progress on the divestitures. We've either got sales agreed or completed on 13. And as you saw from the announcement a couple of weeks ago, much further ahead with Banamex, and I think anyone would have thought. So it will be down to 51% when the latest tranche of investments closes before too long.

So it's a clearer Citi. We've also, as an organization of the org simplification, you've got a flatter, simpler, better connected firm, faster decision-making, much easier to connect the pieces to deliver one Citi to a client with a focus and accountability within the organization to do that. And that transparency and accountability from the org side was a really important piece.

Transformation in good shape, as you've heard, but also importantly, driving some of the benefits that we'll get from the investments in transformation, translating now into efficiencies. And we have modernized the firm, the infrastructure of the firm. And we have a fantastic leadership team in place that really works as a team. So you put all of that together, we got a lot done in a short -- relatively short period of time, translate into results in terms of the revenue growth, positive operating leverage, improvement in returns, improvement in the position of each of the businesses.

And I am looking forward to the next 5 years as we manage the firm with a much simpler, better Citi. And our competitors better watch out, and our investors should just enjoy the upside because we're still cheap.

And with that, please join me in a round of applause thanking Jane for joining us today.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and get started. So delighted to welcome, next up, we have Citigroup and from Citigroup, we are fortunate to have Gonzalo Luchetti, Head of U.S. Personal Banking and incoming CFO for Citigroup joining us. So first of all, thank you so much, Gonzalo.

Thank you for having me, Ebrahim. Nice to be here.

I think if I'm right, this is probably, Gonzalo's first debut solo performance as the incoming CFO. So we are super lucky that you could join us. I know you had a very extremely busy schedule.

And for those of you who are not familiar with Gonzalo, just when he was named CFO, I think -- and just talking to investors, his background, I think been with Citigroup for 20 years, 2006. And grew a lot of different businesses through a lot of different regions. I was just going to the bio again last night. I was like, wow, you've seen it all actually over the last 2 decades at Citi.

But maybe just if you don't mind, give us your perspective, like I think you do have a unique lens having been at Citi for 20 years. Like as you prepare to assume the CFO role, just an overview of your background like what you've picked up over the years and kind of how you view the franchise?

Sure, sure. Thank you. Well, thanks for having me here. Great to be here, Ebrahim. And good to see you again.

If I have to think of a word for my background -- first of all, I don't love talking about myself. Let me start with that. I'm Argentine-merican. I saw the World Cup flashing on the screens. Very excited about that. I have a pretty decent hedge between the World Cup and the Olympics, I can celebrate on both because of the Argentine American thing. We don't tend to do very well, the Argentines at the Olympics, and we do a little bit better, hopefully, again, in the World Cup.

And diversification doesn't necessarily mean, as some people may interpret that there's nothing that I know much about, hopefully. But as you said, I've been around in a few places in the last, almost 20 years, in April it will be 20 years at Citi. I had the privilege of working across regions. So I worked in Latin America, in the U.S., in EMEA, in Asia Pacific. I lived for 6 years in Singapore. So I had -- and at that time, we were overseeing 18 markets in the Retail Bank, in the consumer franchise as well. So I had the opportunity of seeing digital develop in different countries and different models, and I was able to apply much of that in the last 5 years as Head of U.S. Personal Banking.

I've been across business and function. I've also operated at the local, at the regional and at the global level. So a few elements that gave me some -- different businesses, too. I started in the private bank, then I worked in the wealth, affluent franchise, with financial advisers in the U.S. with relationship managers in Asia, looked after the retail bank, looked after our unsecured credit card businesses, our secure mortgage businesses as well. So a range.

So that's an awesome set of experiences coming into this role. And I guess as you sort of take over the CFO role, just talk to us in terms of the key priorities that you have, like as you're thinking about what's top of mind?

Yes. I think if I had to simplify my priorities are probably twofold. Number one, drive consistent, higher returns. And two, pursue excellence in execution.

So to unpack that a bit, for me, it starts with durability. You want results to be consistent and sustainable over time. And that, in my mind, starts from strong risk and control management practices, from a strong balance sheet and strong liquidity and to putting safety and soundness first because that gives you, I think, the ability to build on that, the performance that you need later.

In USPB, I use that as an example for me, which is, we did that, and as a consequence of that is why we were able to string together 13 quarters of positive operating leverage because we're really focused on making -- the gains that we were making stick over time.

The second thing that I would say is driving performance and execution mindset. And that to me comes from strong accountability. Jane is doing that with each of the 5 businesses. I know it in my own scheme because I've been one of the 5 for the last 5 years. And so that accountability to me is important. It's recognizing that the results speak louder than actions and speak louder than words, and that what we say we want to do, we actually have to do everything we can to achieve it. And so that mindset of doing what we say we're going to do, I remember Jane and Mark saying in the fourth quarter earnings call in -- which was in the first quarter of 2024, saying that our business, a U.S. personal banking business needed to have returns in the mid to -- mid to high teens was the range that we were aspiring to.

In 2024, we printed a 5.5% ROTCE, so well below that. But the focus that we had as a team enabled us to put it in the second half of last year north of 14% and for the average for the year was north of 13%. So that ability to really focus on execution and try to anticipate the risks, do something about them early enough and have urgency of purpose, I think is the second thing that I find would be important as I look forward.

And the last piece I'll mention is this Japanese word called, [ Shoshin ] which is, even if you've looked at a problem 100 times, trying to approach it like a beginner, with a beginner's mindset. And that usually releases you from the boundaries that we tend to put on ourselves. So I look forward to, as I work with the whole leadership team and with Jane, looking at opportunities to go further in terms of our returns, which we're going to talk about that in our upcoming Investor Day. And that, to me, would be also a critical focus. So higher, sustainable returns and that mindset of relentless execution is what I'll be about.

You're welcome to give us a preview of the Investor Day, if you like.

I'm sure.

But...

I'm scared of Jane, so I don't -- I wouldn't do that.

So I think, maybe just taking a step back, Gonzalo, in your current seat, there's a lot of debate around the consumer, the macro outlook. I think we were anticipating the jobs data this morning. Just talk to us kind of how you would assess the health of the consumer when you look at card activity and from a credit quality standpoint?

Yes. No, thank you. So I think a couple of things from -- maybe starting from the top. From a macro perspective, we see what we expect a continuation of the constructive dynamics that we saw in terms of growth in 2025.

And maybe let me start going around the world and then come to the U.S. last, but -- from Europe, we expect moderate continued growth, supported by the prior cuts from the ECB as well as supported by the Germany focused on infrastructure. What we've seen in emerging markets is emerging markets being able to adapt so far at the policies of the developed markets, doing more intra-EM trading and having some demand-driven growth in economies like in ASEAN, in India, in Brazil, in Mexico, so in a few places. China with a strong export machine and redirecting into the EU and ASEAN as well as policymakers being willing to step in if they see any softness in private consumption.

And then in the U.S. continues to show a constructive posture, right, and that's in line with our expectations.

And as far as the U.S. consumer, we see resilience. We continue to see resilience early in the year you were asking about what do we see in our data because we have the privilege of serving 70 million customers in our U.S. consumer franchise. And we continue to see that resilience of spend in line with what we've seen in the last several quarters. And at the same time, we're seeing stability. We still see the K-shape, right, that a lot of people talk about. But we also see -- because we are prime-focused, and we're prime-centric at 85% plus prime FICO lender. We still see stability in credit and delinquencies.

So, so far, pretty constructive. Of course, we always worry about what could go wrong, and we monitor closely things like geopolitics or policy choices, obviously, the equity markets and unemployment, which again, the 4.3% is pretty -- looks still to be in good equilibrium. But we also know all those 4 things could change relatively quickly. We've seen it before as well. So we are optimistic but paranoid, I would say.

Okay. And when you think about -- you just mentioned the K-shaped economy, are you seeing the lower end of sort of, I guess, of the K getting better? Like is there some stability like we've heard about that the lower income consumers has been under stress for a few years now. Is that getting better or worse or more or less the same?

We see a little bit less bifurcation that we saw 2 to 3 years ago, what I would say, right? It's a little bit more -- the behavior is a little bit more similar across the spectrum. A couple of years ago, we saw a little more differentiation between the affluent and the non-affluent consumers. So far, the trends are a little bit more consistent. You still see the K shape but a little bit more consistent across in terms of delinquency, in terms of spend growth and so on.

Got it. Just very quickly, I mean, I think obviously, we started the year a lot of us were surprised by the 10% credit card cap debate around that. I think we hosted a panel yesterday. It sounded like the administration better appreciate sort of the macro negatives of that policy. But just would love to hear in terms of how you thought about it, impact on the business, merchants, consumers.

Yes. No, very good question, Ebrahim. And I think -- well, first of all, I should say we are well aligned in terms of the pursuit of supporting consumers in the affordability challenge that many face, right? So as Citi, we have a long track record of offering low-cost options for customers.

So example would be, we have our access deposit account, which is a very low cost account with a very easy path to 0 cost. We were the only big bank that eliminated overdraft fees. We've been 15 years running the leading affordable housing lender even though we don't have a very large mortgage company, and we have our Simplicity card, which is a no-fee card that we offer customers on the credit card side.

So we've been trying to support affordability for a while now. And at the same time, as you were mentioning, we don't support, right, the proposal on APR cuts because we think that the detrimental impact on the economy would be really material, right? If you think about $6 trillion of the $30 trillion that is this economy is credit card spend, and we're talking about something that in theory could have material impacts in credit lines, in availability of credit, especially for the lower income and the lower FICO because it will become completely unprofitable in an unsolvable way. That, to me, would have massive ripple effects through retail industry, through hospitality, travel. And so that's why we don't see it as a good thing that we would support.

Got it. And maybe, I guess, just talking about the business, I think you mentioned in terms of the improved returns within USPB and just several quarters of positive operating leverage. Just talk to us in terms of the biggest changes that you made? And because I feel like it's going to be useful to you as you look at the other businesses that are sort of coming up the curve on returns. Like what is it that drove that improvement?

Yes. Yes. Thanks. So just maybe starting at the top for those that are not integrally familiar with our USPB franchise. We serve 70 million customers, as I mentioned. And we took the business as a team from -- over the last 3 years, we were able to grow at about -- a little bit over 8% annually in terms of revenue. So we took it from kind of mid $16 billion into $21 billion. And the 13 quarters of positive operating leverage, which allowed us to bring the operating efficiency down from 57% then to 53%, then to 49%. And last year, it was 46%.

And that, to me, came -- by the way, we're not done. I should actually say that, right? We're not -- we're -- this is only -- we're in the middle of the road still, I think there's a lot of opportunity for Pam and the team on the credit card side and for Andy, on the retail bank side to continue moving forward. But we did, I think, 3 things. One was really focused on having a strong foundation. So benefiting from the transformation work across the firm, continuing to strengthen over the last few years, the risk and control management posture, our management of the balance sheet, running data, all those pieces were super important for us so that we can really focus on driving the engagement with customers.

Second, having a clear strategy, knowing where we wanted to go. We focus a lot on customer obsession and driving simplicity. That's why we did in the retail bank, our simplified banking offering to really sharpen our value proposition. We also focused on what we thought we were good at, which is in the retail bank, for instance, we really focused on our 6 core markets as opposed to trying to be everything to everybody.

And then the third piece, as it relates to cards is we've focused a lot on growing our proprietary cards, which are very high return, and at the same time, having a lot of discipline on accessing scale through partnerships with a mindset on returns. And so those are the elements that play out.

And then the last piece, going back to what I said a little bit earlier, really relentless execution focus. So holding ourselves accountable and being there to identify any opening risk and doing something about it earlier, usually puts us in a better position to resolve.

And just on the cards, one small follow-up around, talk to us about the competitive landscape, like you're seeing all the incumbents coming up with offerings. Obviously, one of the largest card issuers did an acquisition, they became even larger, new banks jumping in, just what does that look like? Is it more intense than anything that you've seen over the last 5 to 10 years or pretty much the same?

Yes, good question. I would -- my description of having lived it for the last 5 years in this business, it's very, very competitive, right? Very competitive. You see a lot of investment because it's a good returning franchise. So maybe taking a step back to recap, our business in cards for those that are less familiar, is an $18 billion revenue business and about $175 billion in outstandings. That puts us squarely in the #3 position, which is one that we like in terms of scale because if you think about this industry, the credit card industry is both -- it's large, it's growing and it's profitable. So you like that kind of triple play and being able to play in that space.

We see competition in product innovation. We see competition in experiences. We see competition in ecosystem. So when you think about our strategy, and our portfolio is a diversified portfolio in the credit card space. So we have proprietary cards that only carry our name. We also have co-brand cards with some marquee names like Costco and American Airlines, some of the largest portfolios in the country. And then we also have private label cards that we do in partnership with some retailers like Best Buy or Home Depot or Macy's and so on.

But when we look at where do we focus on, given this high level of competition, is we try to really lean into product, platform and ecosystem innovation. So we launched over the last 1.5 years, our Strata family. That was our reentry into the rewards and affluent space in our proprietary business. We also have focused a lot on driving disciplined returns and scale with our partnerships. So Costco, we refreshed the whole product last year. American Airlines, our 38-year relationship we extended in the fourth quarter of 2024, and we're broadening it. So in the second quarter, we're going to take on the part of the portfolio that we don't have to fully unify the relationship. On both of those portfolios, we saw record acquisitions in the last year.

And one of the biggest areas we've been investing on that is highly competitive Ebrahim, to your question is really the loyalty ecosystem, right, and the platforms. And the reason for that is that what you want is you want to augment the quality of your relationship and the depth beyond the card itself and the swipe alone. And so things that we've done there is we launched Citi Travel over the last couple of years, Citi Shop, merchant offers so that you create that loyalty, loyalty on the point side, right, our ability to not only -- if you're a customer, you cannot only redeem the points in the [ thank you ] ecosystem that we created that many others have, but you will also try to give customers the flexibility and ubiquity of point usage. So you can use it at point of sale with Walmart, with Amazon, with PayPal, with Walgreens with CVS, so that it's really flexible in terms of what you can do.

And the same is true for financing. So if you're not -- if you don't want to be a revolver, we allow you to convert your expenses into installment loans. You can do that after you made a purchase by going to our app and choosing one and saying I want to convert this into installment loan or you can do it at a point of sale with Apple Pay, you can do it at point of sale with Amazon and so on. And so the focus on that platform and ecosystem has been very important.

And then the last thing I'd say -- sorry, to not take too much time. But the last thing I'd say on cards is as we go forward, and obviously, we'll talk more about this at Investor Day. There's a couple of things we see in the customer behavior in the market, right, that speak to how competition is evolving. And that to me is the blurring lines between the co-branded space and the private label space. And customers over the last few years really choosing with their wallet to lean more towards general purpose cards. So whether the proprietary cards or the co-branded cards, the ones that you can use in any store.

And so I think what you're going to see from us is, us making investments and leaning in that direction, where the customers are taking us as we go forward.

Makes sense. That's how I've been leaning personally. So that makes sense. But maybe just one more on the business. I mean, obviously, you announced a splitting of the retail bank. And then sort of having a stand-alone cards business. Just talk to us the strategic rationale behind that? And how does that change sort of the growth algo for both those businesses going forward?

No, great question. And I think the easiest way for me is customer synergies. So that's really the answer for me. And when you look at our Retail Bank business, we operate across 6 markets in the U.S. Those 6 markets are -- represent about 1/3 of the affluent and high networth households in the U.S. And we're always talk in our wealth business about that our wealth customers have $5 trillion of wealth of us, right, that we think that's an opportunity for us to deepen our relationship to tap into. These 6 markets cover about a little bit more than half of those $5 trillion.

So clearly, the alignment between our retail bank business that we were running inside U.S. Personal Banking and our wealth franchise is very strong. You can actually see it in 2 forms. You can see it in the deposit per branch. We have one of the highest ratios. So that shows you we have an affluent leaning franchise. And the second thing, right, so that to me is the biggest point because I can tell you how much the overlap and you will say, well, I have to believe many things.

We actually -- if you look at what we've disclosed the last couple of years, last year alone, we upgraded and referred $15 billion of volumes from our branch network into the wealth business. So it's not something that you have to believe, it's actually happening every day because many of the relationship managers from wealth sit inside our branches and get the instant referrals, right, as far as the commercial activity.

So we thought the opportunity to really augment those level of synergies get enhanced when they work under a single roof. So that was the main one reason, I would say. The second reason, even from my current perspective as I come into the CFO role, is having an end-to-end view and management of the U.S. consumer deposit franchise is very useful to me because now Andy and his team can oversee end-to-end our ability to capture low-cost deposits. So that piece is important to me.

Now you may ask why now, right? If this was so clearly evident. And I think to me, the answer goes through a couple of pieces, which is, I think both the retail bank and the wealth business under Andy's leadership, they have made sufficient progress in terms of upgrading performance and really driving results that I think they are now in a position to be put together.

So if you look at our Citigold business, which is really the one that is synergistic with the retail bank, last year, we disclosed this last year, that revenue grew 17% year-on-year. And if you look at the retail bank, we grew revenues 21% year-on-year. So you're starting to see consistent performance across both of the franchises, which gives us the confidence that you put them together and you get 1 plus 1 equal 3.

And I guess what does this mean for the stand-alone cards business? Does the narrower focus help in terms of execution, growth, all of that as we look forward?

Yes, I think so. I think in that identity of being -- becoming one of the 5 businesses, it's still very large because it's $18 billion franchise, allows Pam and the team to really create that unified strategy, right, really reorganized the business to make sure that we're aiming towards that future that I was describing in terms of that focus on general purpose cards around proprietary and co-brands, while still making sure that we're serving customers in the private label space. So that unified card strategy, I think, will be the primary benefit on that side of the house.

Got it. I guess maybe just pivoting a little bit to firm-wide and putting on your CFO hat, I guess. So I think Mark laid out the NII ex markets guidance, 5% to 6% up year-over-year. I think it does much better than most of us expected. Just talk to us as we think about the drag from rate cuts this year relative to what you believe will be the offsets, be it on the card loan growth on the deposit side?

Yes. Thank you. So yes, we provided a guidance of 5% to 6%, maybe 2 comments of the topic. The first one is that would be a continuation of what we did in '25. In '25, our NII ex markets was 6%. So as we looked at the guidance with Jane and Mark, that 5% to 6% operates in that range. But to me, the most positive element of that, and I'll talk to some of the puts and takes, but the most positive element of that is that it's really client-driven activity, right? It's a whole set of franchises leaning forward commercially to gain more business from our customers. So the biggest component of the 5% to 6% really relates to volume and to mix just in line with what I just said, right?

So to split it up a little bit, let me start with deposits. We expect to see mid single-digit growth in our operating deposit services franchise, which is one of our crown jewels as you look into the global payment volumes and what we're doing with customers there. We also expect that level of growth within our wealth franchise that now actually encompasses all of the consumer deposits across the firm. So those 2 are key drivers of the 5% to 6%.

On the flip side of the balance sheet, we also expect to see 5% to 6% -- sorry, not 5% to 6%, mid-single-digit growth in our card loans. I was just talking about the strategy and how we're leaning forward into both the co-brand relationships and the proprietary and making investments there with Strata, with what we did with American Airlines, with Costco, with others. And then secondly, we expect to see growth also from the wealth business as we deepen the relationship with our customers in terms of loan growth. So you have mid-single digit on the deposit side. Services and wealth, you have mid-single digit on the loan side. Cards and wealth, which are good, high-return loans.

And then the second piece that is a contributor, and it gets partially mitigated to your point, around the short-term rates, and we had baked a couple of records into our assumptions on the 5% to 6%. So that detracts a little bit from that upside I was talking about, but it's fully considered into it. It's also our investment portfolio, right, as fixed rate securities and derivatives rolled off into higher-yielding elements, we're also able to pick up a little bit as well. But the primary driver is really that client-driven activity and those underpinning elements in the franchisees.

And just on that, like the deposit growth environment, like how would you characterize just the competition for deposit growth, you mentioned wealth or services, where you obviously have the sticky client relationship, but just incrementally bringing on core deposits, like how tough is that right now?

To me, it's always tough in the sense that it's highly competitive, right? I would equate it to what we were talking in the credit card space. These are good return in businesses, right? When you think about Wealth Management, it's a high-returning business. When you think about services, obviously, as I mentioned, one of our crown jewels, even if we have an [ irreplicable ] network, we think and something that's really a competitive advantage. That doesn't mean that we're not competing market-to-market and flow to flow with many companies around the world.

So however, what I would say is we're seeing good momentum, right? You saw in our results in the fourth quarter, the progress we've made on services, whether it's on the NII or on the NIR on that business. So the momentum, both coming from existing global multinational relationships and deepening those as well as what Shahmir and team are doing in terms of gaining new sizable mandates, we really are seeing good momentum. And then what we see in the wealth business is that focus that Andy has on net new investment assets and that single-minded mindset of that's the true north as we grow into our strategy on wealth.

That brings along also elements of deposit to deepen the relationship as well.

And maybe just on that, you mentioned NIR. So when we look at noninterest revenue ex markets, I think, again, Mark laid out, you're not guided for it, but just expectations for growth. When we think about the top 2 or 3 drivers of that growth this year, just talk to us kind of where that should come from?

Yes. I'm going to sound repetitive here. But to me, the positive of what we expect in NIR ex markets is anchored in the same momentum that we're seeing across our client franchise. So it's really the engagement and the positive share momentum across our businesses.

So let me unpack a couple of the drivers that we see. Let me start with wealth because I was just talking about it. Wealth, you saw NIR growth of 10% last year, supported by an 8% growth in net new investment assets. So that includes investment revenues and other fees that we make. So Andy and the team are really focused on driving that fee income component in terms of deepening their relationship with the clients across the spectrum of the franchises, all the way from the private bank into our affluent businesses.

The second big piece for us is services. So services has more than a $6 billion NIR component into the business, and they were able to grow at 6% last year. And it goes through U.S. dollar clearing volumes, cross-border payment volumes, asset values increasing as well. And it is that combination, the momentum that they have really good momentum as it relates to gaining new mandates, but also deepening their relationship with multinationals across more markets that makes those deposits as well as the fees that we get stickier, right? And so that breadth, I think, will continue to drive NIR.

And then the last piece is on banking. We started the year with what is a constructive wallet so far across M&A, ECM, DCM. So you're going to see us continue to deliver momentum. We see good pickups in technology, in health care, in industrials, and that's usually will be constructive for us as we look into our momentum earlier.

Helpful. I guess maybe moving from revenue on to the expense side, I think you -- not to be nitpicky, but I think slightly tweaked the efficiency guidance to approximately...

It just shows that you have attention to detail, Ebrahim.

Thank you. So I'll take that as a compliment. But the 60%, just talk to us around -- I'm assuming it offers you a little flex in terms of as the business evolves to do things that are necessary, to grow the business, invest in the business. So one, just what are the drivers of the outlook when we think about the expense base, expense growth. And then I'd like to sort of -- I'll follow up with -- can this actually be flexed lower over some period of time?

Yes. Thank you. Maybe to recap at the top. What I would say is, if you think about the overall posture for the firm over the last few years versus the next few years. And obviously, we'll talk about this at length at Investor Day, very clearly for us, the biggest objective this year is to deliver what we committed, which is the 10% to 11% ROTCE.

We've also always been clear that that's a way point, not a destination. And so we expect to talk on our upcoming Investor Day about where are we trying to take those returns over the next few years.

Now if you think about our journey, I think the next 3 or 4 years are going to be less about what the last few have been in terms of simplification because much of it we have done are transforming the firm because as we said recently, 80% of our programs are or near completion. And so it will be less about that, and it will be more about pushing forward our growth and our client franchises, right?

And so that to me is the context under which we look at efficiency. And I think it will be important to do 2 things very well. One is to continue to focus on opportunities to drive greater efficiency and at the same time, and therefore, the adjustment, find the balance in enabling high returning growth that we can access. So if we want to invest in our global payments platform, where we have a differentiated capability in services, we want to be able to do that. If we want to deploy talent in banking or in wealth, we think that's important to do. If we want to lean into marketing and product innovation in cards, we think that's super accretive or if we want to go into equities in markets and build greater scale, we think that's important. So we wanted the flexibility, but at the same time, we recognize the impetus is still important.

If you look at our efficiency picture, last year, we printed a 63% operating efficiency. We brought that down from 66% rough numbers, right? So we brought it down by about 3 percentage points from 66% in 2024 to 63%. And our guidance, as it stays in 2026 is to do above another 3% and bring it in and around 60%. And we think that allows us to have that balance.

And then as you move forward, I think -- I still think there's more opportunity. And to me, the drivers are going to come from a couple of sources. The first one is we talked about how our transformation costs, the peak of those was last year. So what you can expect over the next couple of years is that as we reach -- get closer to full completion, right, and beyond the 80%, which we're working hard as a team, you're going to see, especially the component of those costs that were temporary surges in order to build components of the house in the transformation program, they're going to start to roll off. So that you will see coming through.

The second piece you're going to see coming through is our stranded costs from some of the exits and the legacy franchise decisions, that will play through as well. And the last piece, which I think is a multiyear journey is adjusting our operating model across our key processes. So we've identified the more than 50 core big scale processes that we think there's opportunity to drive further automation even beyond what we've already done through the transformation, leveraging technology and AI, I think those will give us also a continued source of efficiency over the next few years. So we're not done. I guess, is the short answer to your second question.

That's good to hear that you please your shareholders. But maybe -- so you mentioned 80% through transformation. You mentioned AI initiatives. I think you've been involved in firm-wide AI initiatives. Just talk to us in terms of within USPB, the projects you've undertaken? And just from a firm-wide standpoint, obviously, a lot of discussion around all things AI. Like how do you think that could sort of transform the bank operationally?

Yes. We -- in terms of the transformation, let me start there. As we talked about how we are -- 80% of the programs are at or near target state. I got to see it in U.S. personal banking as a microcosm, right? And the example externally that I usually use because I get to see how we changed our machine last year across the firm, not just in USPB. We really standardize our control set across the whole firm, which was a very large effort that we've concluded. We've also -- and I got to see that as U.S. Personal Banking, and that was super beneficial for us as well in terms of driving consistency.

We talked also externally about data. And sometimes I find it even as a topic, it becomes somewhat abstract. So the example that I used that you can actually see and verify on your own is -- and this was a U.S. personal banking example. But this is one of many, many that we don't disclose, of course, but this one you get to see is, if you look at our DFAST results from 2023 to 2024, you're going to see in our first lien and also in our HELOCs stress losses, a significant decline. I can tell you that was data improvement. So that was -- it's a microscopic example, but it hopefully gives you a more tangible version of what does it mean when we're saying we have transformed the firm over the last 3 to 4 year and how do you touch and feel some of the benefits.

A few of them, you get to see, not all of them. But as you see automation and you see the data lineage and data accuracy, that enables us to make improvements such as that one.

And then as it relates to AI, our approach is twofold, right, in terms of the benefits that we're trying to see. One is, I would describe it as bottom up. And what that means is that we really want to unleash the innovation that each of our 200,000 employees can bring to the table, right? Why? Because as an enterprise, you cannot reach every micro journey of how everybody does their new and specific role. Not all of the roles have scale, right? Not everything is a customer service agent.

And therefore, we believe in the importance of the bottom up, and that's -- I think, so far, we've enabled 182,000 of our employees across more than 84 markets to access the tools. We're seeing very good uptick. I think more than 70% adoption across the firm. And those are micro improvements in productivity that you see in finance, in HR, in Legal, summarizing this report, creating this presentation, creating a new logic for scanning a legal contract and telling you whether it's aligned with a policy that may be the job of 3 or job of 4 people as opposed to job of thousands.

So we think that component is important because not all the innovation comes from the top, very clearly. We do think it's beneficial, and that's the second leg of our strategy in AI to make sure that on the things that are scaled that we do put the full force of the firm because that allows us to access greater pockets of efficiency and effectiveness as well as we can do it faster. So not only do we have the bottom-up approach, we also have the top-down approach, which are those greater than 50 processes that I was talking about a minute ago.

And we organize ourselves to be able to look at those end-to-end. So when we step back on each of those, and we say, how can we further automate? It's not only AI, by the way, right? AI is one component, but it's also process reengineering. It's also technology and automation. And the benefits are customer experience in many cases. The benefits can be risk management and control management benefits, and there can also be efficiency and effectiveness. So we're seeing that kind of dual polar element of our strategy, which is the bottom up.

Complemented by the top-down approach that really allows us to go after those 50 processes, 50-plus into -- with some intensity with scale and putting the full force of the firm to make progress. And let me give you something more tangible because you hear what are these 50-plus things that you're talking about? U.S. Personal Bank, we started a little bit over a year ago on customer service. And what we created is Agent Assist, leveraging AI. So how does it improve, right, the customer experience or the controls or the effect or the efficiency that I was talking about?

Well, so let me give you 2 or 3 examples of Agent Assist. One of the things we do is where -- with AI, we are able to understand the intent of the customer in the automated response system better. So if you're capturing X percent of what a customer says and if you're accurate, you're going to be able to send him or her into the right branch of the tree for disposition and for servicing the customer we're able to increase the level of interpretation ability. So that is super valuable.

The second thing we did is whatever you say to the machine in the first few minutes, if you end up with a human, we're putting a summary in front of the human so that before here or she picks up the phone and says, Hi, Ebrahim, how can I help you? I know what you want to do already. And I can help you without having you to repeat yourself which is super frustrating for people. So that is a customer experience improvement.

We also give you a live transcript. Sometimes people are calling from cell phones. There's noise on the phone. The agent may need to say, can you repeat that? Can you repeat? Again, super frustrating. You have a live transcript that's going live in front of the eyes of the person listening to the customer. So you have a higher odds of just being more succinct in the conversation and being able to make the client happen.

And finally, we also summarized the call. Instead of asking the agent to type them up for 3 or 4 minutes, it summarizes the call for them. All those things, when you add them up, there are minutes of safe human interaction and a better experience for the customers. So that's how we're seeing it deployed in real time.

So I guess we should look forward to our next customer service call based on that?

Yes...

But maybe I think just to close this out, Gonzalo, as someone who's watched Citi for 20 years personally, I think there's been demonstrable sort of improvements and changes made on the Jane's leadership. I think that's not up for debate anymore.

But again, when we started this conversation, you've been at Citi's since '06. So you went through the financial crisis, you've seen different iterations. Just talk to us around your confidence in the positioning of Citigroup today as we think about just sustained improvement in the efficiency that you laid out, but also in terms of the competitive positioning as we think about how does Citi compete with some of the largest and the best banks in the United States and globally.

Yes. No, thank you to me. We've always had -- and you've followed us for many years, so you can probably -- you may agree with me. We've always had some distinctive assets, right, at the firm. Our globality is not new, right? Our global network, the aspirational element of our wealth franchise, the scale we've had in services, in markets, in cards, that's long-dated. But what feels really different and gives me the optimism as I look forward even from my USPB had as well is -- are 2 or 3 things that I see different with Jane's leadership and what the whole leadership team is driving.

The first is having a clear strategy. That makes a big difference, right. Knowing who we want to be. You saw Jane make the decision on the 5 businesses. There's very clear clarity and accountability. I felt it in my own skin, right? We're not subsuming to some big holding thing where the performance gets diluted, it's very, very clear. So that simplicity is important. We also were very purposeful in exiting business that we thought were not core to the strategy. So that clarity of purpose to me is paramount. To me, it starts there.

Second, you need the leadership. And what Jane has done in terms of the mix and match of having some people that have been at Citi for a while, like me, but also others that are bringing new ways of thinking in several of our businesses and functions, that right balance mix to me is important but also culturally to me, and you probably heard us talk a lot about in the past that one of the things that held us back is avoiding the silo mentality. We work as a team. Doesn't mean we always agree with everybody but we really work as a team on a single purpose. And that to me is very clear. So when you put accountability together with teamwork to me, that is to me a different posture and a different change. If we continue on that trend, I'm very optimistic.

And the third one is just sharp, relentless execution, right? You probably heard me say execution too many times. I hope nobody is counting on the transcript. But to me, it is about that, it's like waking up every morning saying, how can I do better? I have weeklies with my team on financial performance, have weeklies on my team on efficiency, have at weeklies or biweeklies on control. These things are really important to us. If we say they're important, we have to act like they are important operationally. And doing that at scale across our whole leadership team and every level of our pyramid to me is what will make the difference between doing what we say we're going to do and just having a dream that doesn't get achieved.

Perfect. Gonzalo, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

All right, everybody. Good afternoon. Our final, but -- last but certainly not least, we have Citigroup. And with us today is the Head of Services, Shahmir Khaliq. Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you for the cocktail portion of the day.

So just to start, you were on the stage 3 years ago. And 2 years ago, you and your team gave us a very in-depth view of the services business. So for the investors that aren't as familiar with you, can you give us a run-through of how long you've been the Head of Services and when your -- where your focus has been since your previous Investor Day?

Sure. Firstly, Erika, thank you so much for being here. I think this is, I think, my second or third year that -- the second time I've been here in Florida. but I think it's been about 2 or 3 years since I came to this conference last time. And a lot has changed. And as you mentioned, we had our Investor Day back in the summer of 2024.

So just very quickly about myself. So I've been Head of Services since 2023 when Jane announced some of those organizational changes. And then before that, I was running our Treasury and Trade Solutions business, which is part of the services construct. And if you step back and think about what services is for the ones that may not be as aware, it's basically a combination of our old, what we call TTS business, Treasury and Trade Solutions business, which is payments, liquidity and trade services and then the Security Services combination, which is Investor Services and Issuer Services. So I was running the TTS business.

And prior to that, I ran ops and technology for TTS for about a year. And then before that, I ran our direct custody and clearing business. And if I age myself another 10 years or so, I was running the Investor Services business for North America. So for the last 10, 12 years, I've been in the services business running some of the market-leading businesses within the services construct and helping drive the strategy.

And so the way I would think about it is we had our '22 Investor Day, we had our '24 Investor Day, and that's really what we've been focused on since then, really focusing on forward thinking, thinking about innovation and driving the agenda, but really with one overarching agenda in mind, which is services is the world's biggest transaction services platform, and it operates in 95 markets around the world. How should we invest in the platform, both from a technology and a talent standpoint? How do we drive the right client engagement? And I'm sure we're going to touch on some of those subjects today.

But that's really been top of mind for us that how do we continue to propagate the services agenda and provide solutions to our clients across the globe in very, very challenging macro environment and therefore, growing profitability, growing wallet share as part of that proposition.

So speaking of challenges, it's been quite a last 13 months in terms of U.S. trade policy and geopolitical tension. So would love to hear from you in terms of what are your clients saying? And what's the current sentiment? And how is Citi uniquely positioned to help clients navigate an evolving geopolitical and macro environment?

So I would say our clients are generally very large, significant clients who have global footprints around the world or have aspiration to have a global footprint around the world. So our conversation with our clients, given our preeminent incumbency position is always robust. And if I go down the list of clients, starting, frankly, with the corporates, corporates in a very challenging environment with Venezuela recently with U.S.-China relations, with Russia, Ukraine and then at the start of the year with the change of the administration, the changes around tariffs and supply chains, if you think about all these factors, the ability for us to have a conversation with our clients and give them solutions that encompass all of the regions around the world with all the markets that they operate in, I think, has been invaluable both from a client and from a Citi standpoint.

So what are we hearing? Firstly, on the corporate side, I think the focus on access to capital, the access to financing, the access and the ability to continue to run treasury operations around the globe while making sure that their supply chains are unimpacted and the ability to finance their working capital and frankly, think about free cash flow. So that's on the corporate side.

Talking about banks and broker-dealers, banks, broker-dealers are focused on whether for their retail business, their wealth business or for their markets business, they're thinking about best execution at the cheapest price point. So that's been a big area of focus for us as well in talking providing solutions to banks, broker-dealers who are, again, a significant part of our solution set.

Thirdly, thinking about public sector, how do we help public sector become more efficient. And at this time, when fiscal deficits are running significantly higher, public sector is also on a mission to think about how do they get smarter, how do they think about making their services, whether it's managing their payments agendas around the world or whether it's managing their holdings of treasury bills and securities around the world.

Then if you continue to move towards the investment side, asset managers are with the entire move to private markets, how should they think about their middle and back-office structures. And as part of their public holdings, how do we think about driving down the cost of what they've invested in to allow them to eat out every single basis point of incremental performance that they can show to their investor community. So that's been a big agenda item.

And last and not the least, I would say, if you think about the fintechs, as the bank with the largest fintech client set in the industry, we're actively engaged with our fintech clients to basically say, how do we help you provide access to the bank in a box, the banking as a service to help them run and manage their businesses around the world.

So I would say a fairly challenging environment, but I think Citi's unique capability to provide that global expertise, coupled with local knowledge and market-leading innovation around how we connect the dots for our clients has been mission-critical for our clients and actually to continue to engage and drive some of the profitability that I'm sure you see in your investor community sees across the board.