Fraser Says Citigroup Not Facing Asset Cap, Paring Share Drop

Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said federal regulators have not placed any restrictions on the bank’s growth. 

The clarification came after shares sank as much as 5% on Tuesday after Fraser said her bank is “working closely with our regulators” in response to repeated questions from Wells Fargo & Co. analyst Mike Mayo about whether the company has been slapped with an asset cap. 

Regulators have dinged Citigroup in recent years for shortcomings in its risk and controls. In July, the Federal Reserve said the bank had made insufficient progress toward resolving a pair of consent orders that the central bank and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had slapped on the bank in 2020.

“Let me be crystal clear: we do not have an asset cap and there are no additional measures other than what was announced in July in place, and we’re not expecting any,” Fraser said.

Shares of Citigroup were down about 3.5% after paring those earlier losses, which came after Fraser’s earlier response did not directly address a potential asset cap.

An asset cap is viewed as one of the most prohibitive penalties that banking regulators can place on US banks. 

Mayo’s questions came as watchdogs recently announced in recent weeks that Toronto-Dominion Bank will pay almost $3.1 billion in fines and other penalties and face a cap on its US retail banking assets, after pleading guilty to failing to prevent money laundering by drug cartels and other criminals. 

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