Citigroup reshuffles top ranks as Manuel Medina-Mora retires

Citigroup shuffled its executive team on Monday, a chain reaction of job moves started by the retirement of Manuel Medina-Mora, head of the consumer business, whose standing was hurt by fraud in Mexico.

Stephen Bird, head of Asia Pacific, will replace Mr Medina-Mora as head of Citi's global consumer bank, according to an internal memo from chief executive Mike Corbat. Francisco Aristeguieta, head of Latin America, will succeed Mr Bird. Jane Fraser, head of US retail and commercial banking, will succeed Mr Aristeguieta.

In his memo, Mr Corbat said that Mr Bird, who will move from Hong Kong to New York, had "gained deep experience in consumer banking and our operations across several geographies . . . significantly increasing net income by focusing on target clients in the region".

Mr Bird was head of consumer banking and global cards in Asia before becoming co-chief executive, alongside Shirish Apte, of the region in 2009 when Ajay Banga left to join MasterCard. In 2013 he was on the short list of potential candidates to become chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr Medina-Mora came to Citi via its $12.5bn acquisition in 2001 of Banamex, the Mexican bank, which then consolidated its position as one of Citi's crown jewels even as much of the global empire showed chronic weaknesses.

But last year Banamex was engulfed in two fraud scandals. It admitted that faulty internal procedures had enabled Oceanografia, a contractor to Mexican state oil company Pemex, to stack up fake invoices. Then Citi said that an outside investigation had exposed a $15m fraud in a unit that oversaw senior executives' security.

Mr Medina-Mora's was not implicated in either episode but was held responsible for weaknesses in oversight. One of Mexico's most famous bankers, his cousin Eduardo Medina-Mora, a well-known Mexican diplomat, was last month confirmed as one of the country's supreme court judges.

The Mexican operation, which is much bigger than most parts of Citi's sprawling global network, had been run separately but will now be part of Ms Fraser's remit. She will report directly to Mr Corbat as part of the new structure and will move to Miami.

"Jane has reengineered the mortgage business, streamlined our branch footprint and driven cross-business collaboration while improving productivity, controls and performance," Mr Corbat said in his memo. He said Mr Bird would announce her successor for the US consumer business. Each executives takes up the new job on June 1.

The personnel moves follow another retirement last week when Brian Leach, Citi's head of strategy and risk, stepped down.

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