Michael Corbat

Michael Corbat
Born	Shelton, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Harvard University (Bachelor of Arts, Economics, 1983)
Occupation	Banker
Company	Citigroup Inc.
Title	Former Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup Inc.
Spouse	Donna Corbat
Children	2

Michael Louis Corbat (born 1960) is an American banker who served as chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc. from October 2012 until March 2021. He spent nearly forty years at Citi and its predecessor firms, joining Salomon Brothers in 1983 and rising through fixed income, emerging markets and corporate banking roles before running Citi's wealth management arm, its Citi Holdings unit of crisis era assets, and its Europe, Middle East and Africa business. He was named Citi's chief executive on 16 October 2012 after the board's abrupt removal of Vikram Pandit.

As chief executive, Corbat completed much of Citi's post financial crisis restructuring, continuing the wind down of the Citi Holdings portfolio of non-core assets he had previously run, and oversaw a period in which the bank's net income rose from about seven billion dollars in 2012 to nearly twenty billion dollars in 2019. His final year in charge was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and by sweeping consent orders that the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed on Citi in October 2020, together with a $400 million civil money penalty, over deficiencies in the bank's risk management and internal controls. Corbat announced his retirement on 10 September 2020, stepped down from Citi's board on 26 February 2021, and was succeeded as chief executive by Jane Fraser, who became the first woman to lead a top tier Wall Street bank.

Before banking, Corbat was a college football player at Harvard University, where he was twice named to the All-Ivy League team and was selected to the 1982 Kodak Division I-AA College Football All-America team, the first Harvard player to earn All-American honors since 1975. Since leaving Citi, he has worked as a senior advisor to the private investment firm 26North Partners, founded a consulting business called Teton Advisors LLC, and joined the board of directors of the insurer Chubb Limited.

Early life and education

Corbat was born in 1960. Contemporary reporting from his college years identifies him as a native of Shelton, Connecticut. He attended Harvard University, where he concentrated in economics and played offensive guard for the Harvard Crimson football team under coach Joe Restic in the school's "multiflex" offense. Listed at six feet four inches and 230 pounds, Corbat was a two time All-Ivy League selection and, as a senior in 1982, was chosen to the Kodak Division I-AA College Football All-America team, the sole Ivy League player picked that year and the first Harvard player named to an All-American team since offensive tackle Dan Jiggetts in 1975. His offensive line coach, Richard Corbin, said at the time that Corbat "grades out as one of the best offensive lineman every week." Several National Football League teams scouted Corbat, but he chose not to pursue a professional football career, telling the Crimson that playing in the NFL "would only be the icing on the cake."

While at Harvard, Corbat ran a small business called MCI Enterprises that took on painting, landscaping and light construction jobs around campus, a venture he later described as good preparation for a business career: he said that bidding the lowest price would land him sizable contracts requiring him to hire eight to ten workers at a time. He graduated from Harvard in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and immediately took a job as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers rather than pursue a football career.

Career

Salomon Brothers and early Citi roles, 1983 to 2008

Corbat joined Salomon Brothers in 1983 and spent the next quarter century working continuously for Salomon and its successor firms, becoming a managing director in the firm's emerging markets, high yield and derivatives businesses. Salomon Brothers merged into Citicorp's Salomon Smith Barney unit following Citicorp's 1998 combination with Travelers Group, and Corbat continued to hold a series of trading and corporate banking roles inside the enlarged Citi. According to Citi's own disclosures, Corbat was Head of Emerging Markets Sales and Fixed Income Origination from March 1998 to October 2001, Head of Emerging Markets Sales and Trading and Capital Markets for Citi's fixed income, currencies and commodities business from October 2001 to March 2004, Head of the Global Relationship Bank from March 2004 to April 2007, Head of the Global Corporate Bank from April 2007 to March 2008, and Head of both the Global Corporate Bank and the Global Commercial Bank from March to September 2008.

Citi Global Wealth Management, 2008 to 2009

In September 2008, as the financial crisis intensified, Corbat was named chief executive of Citi's Global Wealth Management division, which combined the Smith Barney brokerage and the Citi Private Bank, a post he held until January 2009. Citi received three rounds of U.S. government support during the crisis, including participation in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Citi Holdings, 2009 to 2011

Citigroup created Citi Holdings in January 2009 to house businesses and assets the bank wanted to exit after the crisis, and named Corbat its chief executive, a post he held until December 2011. Under Corbat, Citi Holdings sold or wound down more than forty businesses, including the initial public offering and eventual sale of Citi's remaining stake in the insurer Primerica, and divested more than $500 billion in assets while Citi rebuilt its capital base. Colleagues credited the assignment, widely regarded within the industry as a difficult one, with establishing Corbat's reputation inside Citi; one banking source told Reuters that Corbat had described the job as "the easiest job in the world" because so many buyers were seeking to acquire the assets Citigroup wanted to sell. Sanford "Sandy" Weill, the executive who had built Citigroup into a financial conglomerate, said of Corbat: "He has been a great manager for Citi in all of the important positions he has held. He is respected by the people within the company and he will be a good leader for the team in the future."

Chief executive officer of Citi Europe, Middle East and Africa, 2011 to 2012

In December 2011 Citi named Corbat chief executive of its Europe, Middle East and Africa region, where he oversaw all of the bank's consumer, corporate, investment banking and private banking operations across the region during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, a post he held until October 2012. During this period Citi's board placed Corbat on the board of EMI, the music company that had come under Citi's control after the private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners defaulted on the debt used to buy it. Corbat also served as a director of British/American Business, Inc. and of the New York City Partnership during these years.

Chief executive officer of Citigroup, 2012 to 2021

Citi's board removed Vikram Pandit as chief executive on 16 October 2012 and named Corbat to succeed him with immediate effect. The board raised Corbat's annual base salary from $500,000 to $1,500,000 to reflect his new responsibilities. In an internal memo to employees on the day of his appointment, Corbat wrote that he was "both humbled by the confidence the board has placed in me, and excited by the prospect of working closely with our management team and the board to take our company forward," while cautioning that "the environment is a challenging and dynamic one."

Corbat's total compensation as reported in Citi's summary compensation tables was $12,377,508 for 2012, $17,558,119 for 2013, $14,457,199 for 2014, $14,598,423 for 2015, $13,381,758 for 2016, $17,801,683 for 2017, $24,183,714 for 2018, $25,508,761 for 2019, and $22,984,090 for 2020, his final full year in the role. Citi's compensation committee set Corbat's target annual compensation at $19,035,000 for 2020, a reduction of roughly 21 percent from the $24,000,000 target it had set for 2019, after concluding that his incentive award should reflect the risk and control failings behind the year's regulatory consent orders and a one time "shared responsibility adjustment" applied across senior management.

Corbat announced on 10 September 2020 that he would retire after 37 years at Citi, including eight as chief executive, and the board elected Jane Fraser, then president of Citi and chief executive of its global consumer bank, to succeed him. In a statement accompanying the announcement, Corbat said: "I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished in the past eight years. We completed our transformation from the financial crisis and emerged a simpler, safer and stronger institution... From 2012 to 2019, Citi's net income increased from $7 billion to nearly $20 billion, and our Return on Tangible Common Equity increased from 5% to over 12%, closing the gap with our peers. We went from returning hardly any capital to returning nearly $80 billion in capital to our shareholders over the last six years." John Dugan, chairman of Citi's board, said that Corbat "will leave the firm in a much stronger position than he found it" and that "he led with integrity and has been dedicated not only to the performance of the firm, but also to the well-being and growth of our people." Corbat stepped down from Citi's board of directors on 26 February 2021, and Fraser's promotion to chief executive took effect on 1 March 2021, making her the first woman to lead a top tier Wall Street investment bank.

Later career, 2022 to present

After leaving Citi, Corbat joined the private investment firm 26North Partners as a senior advisor in 2022 and founded a private consulting business, Teton Advisors LLC. He joined the board of directors of Chubb Limited, the insurance company led by Evan Greenberg, in 2023, and as of Chubb's 2025 proxy statement served on its Risk and Finance Committee and had been nominated to also join its Compensation Committee. For his Chubb board service in 2024 he received cash fees of $135,000, stock awards of $190,184 and other compensation of $40,000, for total director compensation of $365,184.

Leadership and management style

Corbat was frequently described by colleagues as measured and methodical rather than flamboyant. A banking source who worked with him told Reuters at the time of his appointment that "he's really polished and measured," and that he had an exceptional ability "to forge successful alliances within the firm." Analyst Anthony Polini of Raymond James said Corbat had "great leadership capabilities" and would likely be well positioned "to get regulatory approval for the return of excess capital" to shareholders, a priority for Citi after the financial crisis.

As chief executive, Corbat pursued what he called a "two banks" strategy in consumer banking, arguing Citi needed to run parallel operations, one built around digital, mobile-first service for younger customers and another around Citi's remaining branch network for older customers who preferred to bank in person. "You have to provide two customer experiences," he said, arguing that Citigroup's roughly 700 branches across six U.S. cities served an older, branch-oriented customer base while its 28 million credit card holders represented an opportunity to sell banking products digitally; a digital deposit-gathering push attracted $1 billion in new deposits within six months of launch. Corbat argued that financial technology startups would erode specific bank functions, such as payments, but that regulatory barriers to becoming licensed deposit-taking institutions would continue to protect incumbent banks, telling Fortune "you're screwed if you're in denial" about the need to match the customer experience offered by technology companies such as Amazon and Uber.

Corbat also used his position to speak directly on divisive social and political issues facing Citi, an approach The New York Times summarized in January 2018 by observing that "where Mr. Corbat can steer Citigroup directly, he is doing so." That approach was visible in Citi's 2018 restrictions on gun sales by retail partners and in the bank's 2019 decision to disclose its unadjusted gender pay gap, both described below.

Major deals and strategic decisions

The largest undertaking of Corbat's career at Citi was the wind down of Citi Holdings, which he led as its chief executive from January 2009 to December 2011. Citi Holdings sold or exited more than forty businesses and more than $500 billion in assets that Citi had decided were non-core after the financial crisis, including the 2010 initial public offering of Primerica and the eventual sale of Citi's remaining stake in that insurer. As chief executive, Corbat also elected to retain Citi's portfolio of retail store credit cards, including partnerships with retailers such as Sears, Home Depot and Zale, at a time when other banks were exiting the business.

In March 2018, following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Citi announced new requirements for retail and business customers that sell firearms, restricting sales to customers who had passed a background check or reached the age of 21, and prohibiting the sale of bump stocks and high capacity magazines. Corbat told The New York Times the policy had "been a while coming" and, describing himself as "an avid outdoorsman and responsible gun owner," acknowledged that "some will find our policy too strict while others will find it too lenient." He added that in the bank's internal discussions "there hasn't been a consensus, but we also haven't come to this decision in a vacuum," and said Citi's board had supported the decision.

In September 2019, Citi disclosed its unadjusted gender and minority pay gaps, a step Corbat, writing in American Banker, described as motivated by a belief that "problem solving can't start without an honest assessment of where you are" and that "transparency breeds accountability." Citi's analysis found that the median pay for women worldwide was 71 percent of the median pay for men, and that the median pay for United States minority employees was 93 percent of the median for non-minority employees, a gap Corbat attributed primarily to a shortage of women and minorities in senior, higher paying roles rather than to unequal pay for the same work; on an adjusted basis, controlling for role, level and geography, the company found women were paid 99 percent of what men were paid.

Corbat also oversaw the multi-year planning of his own succession, elevating Jane Fraser to the presidency of Citi in 2019 before recommending her to the board as his successor in 2020, a transition Citi's board later credited to "years of Mr. Corbat's leadership and active talent management."

Financial and market performance

In the first year Corbat led Citi, the bank reported 2012 net income of $7.541 billion on a GAAP basis and ended the year with $1.865 trillion in total assets; Citi's stock delivered a one-year total shareholder return of 50.6 percent and a three-year cumulative total shareholder return of 19.8 percent, which the company's board said ranked third and second, respectively, among a group of banking peers.

Citi's results improved through the middle of Corbat's tenure. A one-time $22 billion charge tied to the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced reported fourth-quarter 2017 results, but The New York Times noted that, without the charge, Citi's return on tangible common equity for the year would have exceeded 10 percent, already ahead of the target Corbat had set for 2018. By 2019, Citi's net income had grown to $19.4 billion on revenue of $74.3 billion, with diluted earnings per share of $8.04, and Corbat said the bank had returned nearly $80 billion in capital to shareholders over his final six years in charge while its return on tangible common equity rose from 5 percent in 2012 to more than 12 percent.

Corbat's final full year as chief executive, 2020, was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Citi reported 2020 net income of $11.0 billion on revenue that was flat with the prior year at $74.3 billion, with diluted earnings per share of $4.72, down 41 percent from $8.04 in 2019, as the bank built loan loss reserves against pandemic related credit risk. As of 31 December 2020, Citi reported total assets of approximately $2.3 trillion, roughly 210,000 employees, and total deposits of approximately $1.3 trillion; its institutional banking arm alone held about $1.7 trillion in assets and $924 billion in deposits, and its securities and issuer services businesses had approximately $24.0 trillion of assets under custody. Despite the pandemic, Citi returned $7.2 billion of capital to common shareholders in 2020 through buybacks and dividends and repurchased approximately 41 million shares, a 7 percent reduction in average diluted shares outstanding, before suspending further buybacks later in the year to preserve capital. Citi's proxy statement for 2020 performance stated that "by the end of 2020, Citi's share price had substantially recovered from its March decline," attributing that resilience "in large measure" to the strategy Corbat had designed and executed over the prior decade.

Board memberships and outside roles

While serving as Citi's chief executive, Corbat sat on Citi's own board of directors from 2012 to 2021. Earlier in his career, during his time running Citi's Europe, Middle East and Africa business, he served as a director of the music company EMI, which had come under Citi's ownership, and as a director of British/American Business, Inc. and of the New York City Partnership. By the later years of his tenure as chief executive, Corbat's outside roles included chairman of the supervisory board of The Clearing House Association, vice chairman of the Financial Services Forum, a permanent board member of the Bank Policy Institute, an executive committee member of the Partnership for New York City, a member of the Business Council, a member of the Business Roundtable, a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, and a trustee of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation. Since 2023 he has served on the board of directors of Chubb Limited, where he sits on the Risk and Finance Committee.

Controversies

The final months of Corbat's tenure were marked by regulatory action against Citi. In October 2020, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency entered into consent orders with Citi and imposed a $400 million civil money penalty in connection with what Citi's own proxy statement described as "significant deficiencies in its risk management and operating controls." Citi's compensation committee subsequently reduced Corbat's target incentive compensation for 2020 by about 21 percent compared with 2019, from $24,000,000 to $19,035,000, citing its "assessment of his performance in respect of risk and control concerns" as well as a broader, one time "shared responsibility adjustment" applied to senior executives.

Corbat was also called before Congress in April 2019 to answer questions about executive pay at large banks. During that testimony, Representative Nydia Velazquez of New York asked him: "If you were an employee, and you saw your boss making $486 for every dollar you make, how would you feel about that?" Citi's chief executive to median worker pay ratio was reported as the highest among large U.S. banks at the time. Corbat responded that "through the grace of God, through hard work, I got to where I am," and separately argued that the disparity partly reflected Citi's large workforce in lower-wage countries such as Mexico and the Philippines, saying that excluding those employees, "the average employee in the U.S. makes right about $100,000 a year." Citi's own 2019 pay gap disclosure, which Corbat championed, found that the median pay for women globally was 71 percent of the median pay for men and drew what Corbat called "expected, and justified" criticism even as he defended the decision to publish it.

Personal life

Corbat is married to Donna Corbat, who is originally from Smyrna, Georgia and attended Georgia Southern University and Georgia State University before the couple settled in New Jersey. They have two children, a son, Brian, who has lived and worked in Hong Kong, and a daughter, Allison, who attended university in Scotland. Corbat has described himself as "an avid outdoorsman and responsible gun owner," and press coverage of his career has repeatedly noted his enthusiasm for fly fishing.

Philanthropy

Donna Corbat has chaired philanthropic fundraising events including the Christopher Reeve Foundation's "A Magical Evening" gala and the "Leading Ladies Luncheon" benefiting New Jersey's Community Theatre, and has worked with the organization Empowers Africa on projects supporting schools, orphanages and clean water access in countries including Tanzania and Namibia. Under Michael Corbat's leadership, Citigroup and the Citi Foundation committed more than $1 billion to initiatives aimed at closing the racial wealth gap and increasing economic mobility in the United States, and in September 2020 Citi announced a $250 billion environmental finance goal alongside a commitment to power its operations entirely with renewable electricity by the end of that year.

Recognition

Corbat was a two time All-Ivy League selection at Harvard and was named to the 1982 Kodak Division I-AA College Football All-America team, becoming the first Harvard football player selected to an All-American team since 1975.

See also

• Citigroup
• Jane Fraser
• Vikram Pandit
• Sanford I. Weill
• Chubb Limited

External links

• <ref>"Michael L. Corbat biography".Chubb Limited.</ref>