Citi Bank CEO weighs shutting municipal-bond trading business: Report

Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser is weighing whether to shutter the bank’s municipal-bond trading and origination business, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Citi’s senior executives in favor of closing it down have presented the proposal to Fraser in response to her push to bring the firm’s profitability in line with its competitors, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

 

Citi declined to comment on the report.

 

Citi’s municipal offering business has been under scrutiny from Texas attorney general, who in January halted the bank’s ability to underwrite most municipal bond offerings in Texas saying that Citi has discriminated against the firearms sector.

 

A Citi spokesperson at that time had said the company did not discriminate against the sector and that it believed it was complying with Texas’ law.