Citigroup beat Wall Street revenue estimates across all five of its major business lines, a haul that’s helping the firm manage rising compensation costs and a plan to sell its retail unit in Mexico.
The lender, which employs about 2,500 in Ireland, saw total revenue jump 9 per cent as the firm’s markets, banking, services, wealth and US retail divisions all set records for a third quarter, the New York-based company said in a statement Tuesday. Traders in both equities and fixed-income products surpassed analysts’ projections, pulling in a total of $5.6 billion (€4.8 billion) — or 15 per cent more than a year earlier.
Expenses also climbed 9 per cent, mainly driven by costs stemming from the agreement Citigroup announced late last month to sell a stake in Banamex ahead of a public stock offer.
The firm also pointed to higher spending on compensation and benefits. Chief executive Jane Fraser has green-lit flashy hires from across Wall Street, including a wave of bankers recruited in the past few months to bolster dealmaking desks.
Fraser is investing across the company to make it more competitive and fix systems that have drawn regulatory penalties. The stock has outperformed almost all of the firm’s main US peers in 2025 — edged out only by Goldman Sachs.
“The cumulative effect of what we have done over the past years – our transformation, our refreshed strategy, our simplification – have put Citi in a materially different place in terms of our ability to compete,” Fraser said in the statement.
Meanwhile JPMorgan Chase soared past analysts’ estimates for third-quarter trading and investment-banking fees, driven by a pickup in dealmaking and underwriting amid lingering volatility tied to US president Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The busiest quarter for initial public offerings since 2021 helped fuel a 16 per cent jump in investment-banking fees for JPMorgan, while markets revenue climbed 25 per cent, putting trading revenue on track for a record year. The two businesses were predicted to increase 11 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.
Still, chief executive Jamie Dimon struck a note of caution in assessing prospects for the US economy.
“While there have been some signs of a softening, particularly in job growth, the U.S. economy generally remained resilient,” Dimon said in a statement. “However, there continues to be a heightened degree of uncertainty stemming from complex geopolitical conditions, tariffs and trade uncertainty, elevated asset prices and the risk of sticky inflation.”
That cautious outlook was reflected in an $810 million addition to the pile of money the bank set aside for potentially soured loans, more than analysts expected. Most of that was tied to card services, and the bank cited loan growth and “updates to certain macroeconomic variables” to explain the build.
Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs posted record third-quarter sales, boosted by a rapid pace of growth in its investment bank that eclipsed Wall Street rivals.
The firm reported $2.66 billion in investment banking fees, a 42 per cent surge on the same period last year, the bank said Tuesday. That pace beat rivals and helped the company as a whole report revenue of $15.18 billion, its largest haul for that quarter in its history and its third highest overall for all quarters.
A rush of sizable mergers and acquisitions is lifting dealmakers across Wall Street after trade uncertainty had stifled activity. Global deal values topped $1 trillion in a third quarter for only the second time on record, helped by a slew of headline-grabbing transactions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. -- Bloomberg
