The bank recently took steps to crack down on malicious activity.
Citigroup bankers were partying with clients one night in May 2018 at a downtown Manhattan hotspot called Catch.
One of them, a recent college graduate who was assigned to the equity department on a two-year rotational program at a bank, had brought his roommate to the party. As the evening progressed, one of her unit’s superiors came up behind her roommate and startled her by pressing his crotch against her, according to two people who said they saw him. A few months later, the revolving writer said a male trader told her to wear her short skirt and high heels to work and asked her numerous questions about her love life.
Interviews with 22 people who worked in or near the equities department suggest the incident was not out of the ordinary, advising on trades and trading for top hedge funds and others. The report highlights persistent harassment and discrimination in the equity division of Citigroup Inc. in New York. Wall Street players. The report echoes allegations in a lawsuit filed last year by the company’s executive director, who alleges such conduct continued into 2022. After the lawsuit arose, the company’s head of trading reminded employees to speak up if they saw wrongdoing, reflecting the company’s standard conduct training. .
For at least a decade, employees openly harassed female colleagues, judged them based on their looks and bragged about their sexual conquests, according to interviews with employees who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation. That’s what it means. He said rough behavior in the department included the use of cocaine in the office. Complaints to executives and human resources did not lead to change, and the perception of isolation within the group grew, leading to several employees leaving while some alleged perpetrators remained. officials said.
Citigroup, which made history three years ago by appointing Jane Fraser as the first female CEO of a major U.S. bank, has led its rivals in a number of measures to create a more equitable culture. But the conduct within the stock trading sector stood out in an industry that has struggled for decades to rein in behavior that makes women feel unwelcome.
Citigroup spokesman Mark Costiglio said no one should experience discrimination or harassment in the workplace. “Our commitment to fostering an inclusive and fair work culture will never stop, and we will continue to work proactively to ensure that our standards are well understood and adhered to by everyone at Citi.” It is a process of “We provide a number of avenues for colleagues to raise concerns confidentially and, if substantiated, we will take appropriate action, up to and including termination. We will not comment on specific internal matters. But, simply put, we will leave for good reason.”Employees who do not meet our high standards of respectful treatment. ”
Citigroup, known for its superior fixed income management, has long ranked last among Wall Street’s Big Five banks in equity trading revenue. Despite efforts to change this situation, the company continues to lag further behind JPMorgan Chase, which generates about $5 billion more in revenue from the business, by a difference of about It was $3 billion.
The largest investment banks typically have just over 1,000 front-office employees in their equity trading departments, according to consulting firm Coalition Greenwich. Citigroup has not disclosed the size of its team, which would make it a small but profitable group within its 240,000-person global business.
The leadership of the equity division has changed hands five times in about 12 years, during which time the division has grappled with repeated fraud.
One female derivatives trader recalled that in 2010, while attending a client dinner at Locanda Verde near the bank’s headquarters, a colleague reached under the table and placed his hand on her leg. Ta. Around that time, she said, a research analyst asked her why she didn’t wear sexy shoes.
She talked about both with HR and senior management, explaining that she felt there was an ugly culture going on, and remembers one female executive encouraging her to clean it up. Years later, this conversation stood out as discouraging. One of her colleagues recalled the trader talking about harassment at the time, and another recalled hearing about an interaction with the executive.
“While some of the alleged incidents clearly violate the City’s Code of Conduct, we have not been able to confirm that charges have been filed for some of them. Other incidents date back more than 10 years. “Some of the claims are unsubstantiated, too vague, or involve allegations that are unsubstantiated,” Costiglio said.
Two other women said they kept quiet about sexual harassment by co-workers for fear of retaliation in an industry that values discretion and loyalty. The six non-derivative traders said they had complained about what they believed to be workplace misconduct to their senior colleagues and the human resources department, but were disappointed with the results as they felt the bank had not taken sufficient action.
The three men said they gave separate accounts of events to Dan Keegan, who ran Citigroup’s trading operations across North America. One of them said Keegan was told that senior staff had coaxed a junior banker into showing the underwear of a woman he had apparently slept with. Keegan, who will leave Citigroup in 2022, did not respond to messages. At the time, five people saw or heard about the incident. The young banker was fired.
“The individuals involved in the incident were terminated following an investigation, and their direct manager, who de-escalated the matter, was disciplined,” Costiglio said.
Before a new class of young colleagues joined the company around 2018, bankers prepared for their arrival by distributing documents containing their photos. According to one person who saw it and two others who heard it at the time, employees determined what appealed to them and openly discussed their favorites. A similar explanation was included in a lawsuit filed last November by managing director Ardis Lindsay.
In 2020, Fertel Belbashir was brought in as head of equities as the division continued to deal with poor performance. Still, the problem persisted. After a strong 2021, the London staff’s bold trades triggered a flash crash in European stocks, a blow to Fraser and Belbashir, who still runs the division. Lindsay’s lawsuit alleges that she was part of a group of male managers who ignored women and bonded over discussing their sexual conquests.
“The reference to Mr. Belvacil is based on baseless allegations in a lawsuit that is strongly contested by Citi,” Costiglio said.
Lindsay said in her lawsuit that one of those male managers was executive Mani Singh, who forced her into a relationship and threatened her and her children.
“When questioned several years ago about large financial transactions between the two, Ms. Lindsay described Mr. Singh as just a friend,” Costiglio said, adding that the relationship has since been consensual. He added that he told the bank that it was. Lindsey’s lawyer says that could not have happened because of the power differential between the two.
After Lindsay filed a formal complaint, Costiglio added, “We immediately placed Mr. Singh on administrative leave and began an investigation. Mr. Singh resigned within days before the investigation was completed.” Singh did not respond to requests for comment.
Lindsay’s complaint described an environment in which men talked about which women they wanted to sleep with and treated women as “sexual objects.” In interviews with Bloomberg News after the lawsuit was filed, five women who worked in the division described similar experiences in 2019 of being harassed by men while walking the trading floor. Three of them said they were also angry at Mr Singh’s attitude towards them. For example, one junior employee told her that if she wanted food brought to her, she would drop a credit card in front of her.
One dark episode contributed to the feeling that the division was protecting the crowd. When a top trader pleaded guilty to driving under the influence with a child in the car, Citigroup asked regulators not to disbar him, according to industry records. The bank did not remove the trader, who still works there, from major accounts, including billionaire Steve Cohen’s hedge fund, five colleagues said.
Bankers and traders have long used drugs on Wall Street, but the prevalence of drugs among this group was noticeable to employees who worked for other companies. The bankers were using cocaine with colleagues and clients at their Manhattan headquarters and beyond, according to three people who witnessed the incident. One member of the team said he was at his desk in the trading room around 2016 when he saw a colleague with a white residue between his nose and lips. She suggested he wipe it off.
The bank recently took steps to crack down on malicious activity. Last month, Citigroup told dealmakers at its investment bank to refrain from drinking alcohol at client events and reminded them to keep the company’s reputation in mind after complaints of irregular behavior. Also, a senior dealmaker in the equity capital markets group was placed on leave this year amid an investigation into an altercation with a junior banker.
Meanwhile, Fraser Bank is in the midst of one of the biggest banking reforms in decades. She is trying to downsize the financial institution after it became one of Wall Street’s most bloated institutions, failing to meet its financial goals and its stock price lagging behind its peers.
The rotator, who was asked to shorten her skirt when she went to catch the ball, recalled going to Salima Habib and said that three other people also heard about it at the time.
The rotator says that Khabib has to tell the manager, and that going directly to HR is an option, but it will be difficult, otherwise, a young woman should try confronting the man directly. I remember giving him this advice.
“Comments attributed to Ms. Habib by anonymous sources have been mischaracterized and are inconsistent with her record of supporting and empowering women throughout her career,” the spokesperson said. Ta.
The rotationist also remembers that Habib, who was recently promoted to head of U.S. sales for the division, gave him another piece of advice. That is, “try meditating.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
