Citi CEO Fraser's Trump silence shows Wall Street tightrope as Canadian banks watch
The Scottish-born chief of a major U.S. bank avoids criticizing the president while threatening to leave Britain over taxes.
Citi has become a favourite of President Donald Trump during his second term. Chief executive Dame Jane Fraser's comments in London yesterday may show why.
I sat across the table from Citi's boss Dame Jane Fraser yesterday as she delivered a blistering warning to Andy Burnham and the new Labour government.
For an international group like Citi, Fraser said, there are "very viable" alternatives to Britain should it be penalised with higher taxes. Ireland, Germany, France and even Japan all offer more attractive tax rates, and Britain's advantages, its infrastructure, regulatory environment and talent, are "overcome pretty quickly".
The comments came in response to a question, but let's be clear: this was a carefully choreographed threat to the new team in Downing Street. Hike our taxes, and we'll vote with our feet.
They were typically muscular views from one of the most powerful people on Wall Street; a rare Brit to have climbed to the summit of corporate America. Speaking later in the session on her turnaround of Citi, Fraser said: "I'm not ruthless, but I'm damn tough."
But the Scottish banker seemed more than happy to pull her punches elsewhere.
Citi has proved to be a favourite of President Trump since he took power for the second time. He has promoted the bank on his Truth Social channels and lavished praise on its chief for righting the ship.
"Congratulations to Jane F and ALL of her great people," Trump wrote to his 13 million followers, erroneously crediting them for topping the deals advisory tables. "They've worked really hard! BIG comeback for CITI!!!"
Fraser has seemed to masterfully craft a rapport with the erratic president while the bosses of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have each had their own public pastings. Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon was told to "focus on being a DJ" and Jamie Dimon's JP Morgan has been hit with a $5bn lawsuit after it allegedly closed Trump's accounts.
"We both had a Scottish mother. I think that helps," Fraser said, adding she had only met Trump a handful of times and they did not have a "personal relationship".
'I keep my opinion to myself' But other comments may signal just how she has kept the President onside. Asked how she felt about his gutting of equality and diversity laws, she said only: "We follow the law."
"I keep my personal opinion to myself on all different matters, and, you know, when you have these roles, you do your job. And whether I agree, disagree, or whatever is utterly irrelevant," she said. "I need to follow the laws, rules, and regulations in the countries I'm in, and I follow my clients' interests. My job's not to comment on politics."
Fraser then admitted diversity has been a boon to Citi internally and there was a "strong economic case" for it.
"I get on with doing what we need to do within the company. The US is so different from the UK, you kind of have to learn it, when you get there, because it's a very different political system," Fraser said. "My job's to run the company, my job isn't to go and tell politicians what to do. I'm not very qualified to do that."
Canadian banks with large U.S. operations are watching this dynamic closely. The same political pressure that shapes Wall Street behaviour extends north across the border.
Just earlier she had warned Britain of the dangers of high tax rates, sluggish growth, high spending and disincentivizing people to work, warnings that should be heeded from one of the country's most successful corporate exports. But Fraser's reluctance to wade into the slightest criticism of Trump reveals the tightrope that even America's most powerful executives have to walk.
That toughness, it seems, only extends so far.