Wealth-related earnings shone at Citigroup in the three months to end-March versus a year ago.        

The wealth arm of Citigroup, which includes its private banking business, this week reported first-quarter earnings in 2025 of $284 million, surging by 62 per cent on a year ago, aided by a 24 per cent rise in revenues, while expenses held steady.

At the private bank, revenues rose 16 per cent, year-on-year, to $664 million; at the Wealth at Work segment, revenues surged 48 per cent to $268 million, and Citigold revenues rose 24 per cent to $1.164 billion, Citigroup said in a statement. In total, across the whole business, wealth revenues rose 24 per cent to $2.1 billion in the quarter, and expenses were broadly flat.

The rise in private bank revenues was mostly caused by higher deposit spreads and higher investment fee revenues, partially offset by lower deposit balances. 

Client investment assets in the wealth segment stood at $595 billion, rising 16 per cent on the same quarter of 2024.

The cost of credit in the wealth division was $98 million, compared with a benefit of ($170) million in the prior-year period, driven by a net ACL (allowances for credit losses) build related to deterioration in the macroeconomic outlook in the current quarter, compared with an ACL release in the prior-year period, and higher net credit losses.

Group figures
At the Citigroup group level, it logged net income for the first quarter 2025 of $4.1 billion, on revenues of $21.6 billion. This compares with net income of $3.4 billion, on revenues of $21.0 billion for the first quarter 2024. Revenues rose by 3 per cent, on a reported basis, with growth in all of Citigroup’s business lines.

The bank had a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio – a standard measure of a bank’s capital buffer – of 13.4 per cent at the end of the quarter. Citigroup returned $2.8 billion in capital to shareholders, including $1.75 billion of buybacks as part of its $20 billion plan.

CEO Jane Fraser struck an optimistic note against a backdrop of recent stock market falls and concerns about the global economic effect of US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy. 

“When all is said and done, and longstanding trade imbalances and other structural shifts are behind us, the US will still be the world’s leading economy, and the dollar will remain the reserve currency,” Fraser said.