NEW YORK, April 14, 2026, 11:04 EDT
Citigroup’s first-quarter profit jumped 42% to $5.8 billion and beat analysts’ estimates, as volatile markets and stronger dealmaking lifted revenue to $24.6 billion, its highest quarterly level in a decade. Shares were up 1.4% in mid-morning New York trading.
The numbers matter because Chief Executive Jane Fraser has spent years trying to lift returns and simplify the bank, and investors will get a fuller update on that plan at Citi’s May 7 investor day. Citi said 90% of its transformation programs are at or near target state, while return on tangible common equity, or RoTCE – a measure of profit generated from shareholder capital – rose to 13.1% from 9.1% a year earlier, above the bank’s 10% to 11% goal for 2026.
Revenue rose 14% to $24.6 billion. Markets revenue climbed 19% to $7.2 billion, with fixed income up 13% to $5.2 billion and equities up 39% to a record $2.1 billion, giving Citi its biggest quarterly trading haul since at least the financial crisis.
Services revenue grew 17% to $6.1 billion. Banking revenue rose 15% to $1.8 billion as investment-banking revenue increased 19% to $1.3 billion. Fees from merger advice rose 19%, fees from share sales jumped 64%, and debt underwriting slipped 6%.
Fraser said Citi was “very much on track” to meet its full-year RoTCE goal and had entered the final phase of its divestitures. The bank returned about $7.4 billion to common shareholders through dividends and buybacks, including $6.3 billion of repurchases, and common shares outstanding were down 9% from a year earlier, helping lift earnings per share. Reuters
The quarter lands in the middle of a strong start to big-bank earnings season. JPMorgan Chase also beat expectations on Tuesday on record trading and stronger dealmaking, while Wells Fargo topped profit forecasts but missed on net interest income – the spread between what a bank earns on loans and pays on deposits – and its shares fell; Goldman Sachs set the tone on Monday with stronger advisory and record equities trading results.
Citi said net interest income rose 12%. Wealth revenue increased 11% to $3.1 billion and U.S. consumer cards revenue grew 4% to $4.8 billion.
But the quarter was not clean. Operating expenses rose 7% to $14.3 billion, driven partly by compensation, severance and other revenue-linked costs, while the provision for credit losses increased to $2.8 billion as the bank built reserves against a murkier economic backdrop. Non-accrual loans – loans that have stopped adding interest because repayment is in doubt – rose 25% from a year earlier to $3.4 billion.
CFO Gonzalo Luchetti said deal pipelines “remain strong” and that the second quarter had started well after some large transactions slipped out of the first. He also warned that a prolonged Middle East conflict could delay deals later in the year. Citi said its private-credit exposure was $22 billion as of the fourth quarter of 2025, with no losses over the life of that portfolio. Reuters
At 10:49 a.m. in New York, Citigroup shares were up 1.4%, compared with a 0.3% drop for JPMorgan and a 6.0% slide for Wells Fargo.
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