So we're here today at the
fourth European Financial
Forum in Dublin.
We're delighted to have Mike
Corbat, CEO of Citigroup,
here with us.
One of the big things we're
talking about a decade
on from the financial
crisis, and the big picture
for the conference, really
is, a decade on, are we safer?
Are we better?
Have the problems been fixed,
or are there still risks?
So maybe you could give us
your brief impressions of that.
Well, I think we're
definitely safer and better.
You know, when you think
about - and I come back
at your question in two ways.
One, when you think of capital,
liquidity, risk, risk metrics,
concentration risk, all
of those things, I think,
have been meaningfully
dealt with.
And I think the second
important piece is more
from the strategic side, that
business models have evolved.
10 years ago, everyone was out
with the financial supermarket
trying to be
everything to everyone.
Today you look at
strategies, and strategies
are much more bespoke on an
individual company basis, which
means we don't have
that concentration
risk amongst the things
that people are doing.
And I think that makes
the system much safer.
So it's much safer, but
there are some new risks,
and some that we could never
have envisaged 10 years ago.
Who would've thought we would
be talking about Brexit?
And we are 45 days out.
Or we're less than 45 today.
There's a lot of
uncertainty out there.
How do you deal with that?
Well, again, we've -
and when we say we,
I'm going to speak not just
to Citi, but the industry.
We've had to prepare
for the worst, right?
You hope for the best, and
you plan for the worst.
And I think everybody,
certainly in our case,
we've had to plan for the worst.
And that is the
so-called hard exit,
that there is no pathway
to any smooth transition.
And we've got to be
prepared on day one
to be there to
support our clients.
And so we've made that
investment of time, effort,
energy, resources, business
structure, to make sure
we're there.
And I think as you look at
some of these things going
on it's forced us as a
company and, I think,
forced the industry to
some of the extremes
to be preparing around
sanctions, to be preparing
around trade fallout, of
different negotiations going on
in the world.
And, as you've described,
it's now become a reality.
Yeah, because when you
think about the Europe
continent going forward, how
does this affect your appetite
to invest in Europe?
Well, one is we've been
in Europe a long time.
As an example, we're
in Ireland today.
We've been here 54 years.
So these aren't places that
we've come to overnight.
And, again, we're supporting
not just the local champions
or the national champions.
We're supporting the global
champions that operate there.
And we can make
different arguments
around trade and Balkanization,
but trade is not going away.
Trade routes may realign,
but our customers and clients
count on us to be
there to make sure
that they can be in business.
And we think about - I mean,
your home market isn't exactly
a risk-free market, either,
when you think about uncertainty
around things like the shutdown,
which may or may not resume
at some point.
You have all the
stuff around trade.
How big are the risks
for you in the US?
Well, I think the US
is fortunate today
because we have the backbone
of a fairly strong economy.
If you look at in 2018,
right at 3 per cent growth.
And you look around the world
from a developed markets
perspective, it's kind of at
or near the top of its league.
People are predicting, and
we are seeing, little bits
of signs of slowdown.
But we don't see in the US any
type of precipitous fall-off
or any near to intermediate-term
threat of recession.
And so we still view there
to be very good opportunity.
And I think our
clients remain excited.
Not just our US clients,
but our global clients
remain excited about
being in the US.
Because Citi is one of the
biggest banks in the US,
and one of the most global banks
as well, coming from a bank
your size, where are
there opportunities
to do more than you already do?
Or are you effectively
topped out?
No, we're not topped out.
We think we've got a
fair bit of runway.
And what we've talked
about, and what
we've laid out to
our investors, is
a path around organic growth.
And that growth, when you look
at businesses like our treasury
and trade solutions
business, social security
services business, our
private bank, our lending.
If you look at what
we've done in equities,
or if you look at what
we've done in M&A,
we continue to have good
runway in those businesses,
and pretty high growth rates.
So you still don't want
to buy Deutsche Bank?
No.
Again, we've talked
about - we're
really comfortable with
our organic strategy.
Mike Corbat of Citigroup.
Thank you very much.
