Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Mark Mason: Thanks, Glenn. We did take guidance up to above — slightly above $46 billion from the $45 billion. I guess there are a couple of things in FX markets, of course. There are a couple of things to think about in terms of headwinds and tailwinds that play through there. One is, you’ve heard me mention before that we’ve reached terminal betas in the US; two, deposit volumes and the ship mix as we see consumers kind of move into [Technical Difficulty] products; and three, really the wind downs and the exits and the reduction that they will [Technical Difficulty] kind of three headwinds as we think about the forecast and the balance of the year. There are obviously some potential tailwinds that play to the other side, including rate movements from in non-US dollar, as well as card volume growth.

And as we look at those headwinds and tailwinds, our current read is to take it up, but $46 billion or slightly above that feels like the right level in the context of total revenues at $78 million to $79 billion.

Operator: And our next question comes from Jim Mitchell with Seaport Global Securities.

Jim Mitchell: Hi, good morning. Maybe just getting on the expense side. You’re keeping Mexico till 2025 now at the earliest. So that will be on the books longer. How do we think about that bend the curve discussion? And maybe specifically, you can help us think about bending the curve for the non-legacy businesses? Do we start to see — is the fourth quarter just a slowing or quarterly decline? Is it a year-over-year kind of a discussion? I just want to make sure I understand the whole bend the curve notion and how to think about that.

Mark Mason: Thank you. Let me take that. I’d say a couple of things. So one, I’d reiterate the expense guidance that we’ve given for the full year. So that’s the roughly $54 billion ex divestitures or the impact of divestitures, ex any impact from FDIC special assessment. Two, as we think about bending the curve, I look into 2024 and we’re looking to bring the absolute expense dollars down from Q3 to Q4. So that bending of the curve will occur. It will occur despite having Mexico still part of the franchise. And we obviously still having Mexico impacts the magnitude of the bend, but it will bend Q3 to Q4. And then beyond that and through the medium term, we will see the curve continue to bend. Again, Mexico impacts the magnitude of the band, but we’re very, very focused on bringing our costs down and bending that curve.

And you’ve heard us reference the aspects or the elements of our business that help contribute to that, not the least of which are the exits, one of which is Mexico, and you referenced the timing there, but also the benefits from the investments that we’ve been making in transformation and risk and controls and shifting from manual processes to technology enabled ones. And then the final one is around simplifying our organization. And you heard in Jane’s prepared remarks, as we continue to make progress on these exits it opens up the opportunity for us to lean more heavily into that simplification. So we are focused on not only the guidance, but the bending of the curve as you point out, and looking forward to delivering that and taking actions to ensure we do.

Jim Mitchell: So just as a follow-up, is the way to think about sort of 2025 and beyond as you get through a lot of the automation on the sort of the non-legacy businesses and start to get much more efficient there. Can we — is there an absolute expense decline story in the core business? Or is that more of a — you need the top line growth to get the improved returns?

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