JPM Veteran Raghavan Joins Citi as Banking Head

Citi has named a 24-year veteran of JPMorgan Chase as its new banking head.

Viswas “Vis” Raghavan is set to join Citi’s executive management team and will report to CEO Jane Fraser, the chief executive said in a Monday (Feb. 26) announcement.

“Vis is the right person to take over at this pivotal moment for our banking franchise,” Fraser wrote. “Since first announcing the structural changes last year that established our Banking & International organization, we have begun to operate more efficiently and have strong momentum with clients.”

As head of banking, Raghavan will oversee the company’s investment, corporate and commercial banking operations. And as executive vice president, he “will help shape and drive our firm-wide strategy and assist me with key strategic initiatives,” Fraser added.

Raghavan joined JPMorgan in 2000, most recently being named sole head of global investment banking following a leadership shift in January. Before that, he headed the bank’s EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) investment and corporate banking and treasury services, as well as acting as CEO of JPMorgan in EMEA.

His appointment comes as Citi is undergoing a massive restructuring effort, with the company announcing plans to cut 20,000 jobs by 2026.

Earlier this month, Citigroup partnered with Wellington Management and WisdomTree to explore the tokenization of private markets, with the collaboration successfully completing a proof of concept on the Avalanche Spruce institutional test Subnet.

This, PYMNTS wrote, demonstrated the potential of smart-contract capabilities to bring new functionality and operational efficiencies.

“Private markets, which represent a $10 trillion asset class, have long been plagued by complex and manual infrastructure, a lack of standardization and limited transparency,” that report said. “These factors have resulted in inefficient distribution and operations. The proof of concept aimed to address these challenges by leveraging blockchain technology and smart contracts.”

On the consumer banking front, Citi last month debuted a browser extension designed to help people save money while shopping online.

The free tool, Citi Shop, is available to eligible U.S. Citi credit cardmembers and lets them find deals and discounts at over 5,000 online merchants.

“Citi Shop is designed to overcome a barrier for consumers when it comes to finding coupons or promo codes while shopping online: the amount of time it takes to find these offers,” PYMNTS wrote at the time.