Vis Raghavan says Citi is "just getting started in terms of talent investment"

If you've always wanted to work for Vis Raghavan at Citi, your time may yet come. Speaking at today's Morgan Stanley Financials Conference, Raghavan said the bank is "just getting started in terms of talent investment."

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Raghavan said Citi historically missed out on the financial sponsor and leveraged finance booms in particular. He may therefore be happy that Theo Giatrakos, the bank's senior financial sponsors banker in Europe recently left after Sid Punshi was hired from JPMorgan to do his job. Citi was loathe to take risk and didn't play as financial sponsors assets grew, said Raghavan. That's changing now. 

Despite his enthusiasm for hiring externally, Raghavan reiterated that Citi's "bench" of talent is "remarkable." Confusingly, perhaps, he said this applies equally to the bank's underperforming leveraged finance team. "Some of the team go back to the Solomon days. They've seen multiple cycles. They have bridge syndicated, underwrote, distributed multiple transactions," he observed. There's "a lot of pedigree and talent within the system. There are pockets where we have white spaces where we will continue to build and invest in."

In banking, Raghavan said technology, healthcare and industrials sectors are a priority. "We'll continue to invest in the capital markets, LevFin businesses and really kind of really add more bench strength and capability," he declared. The aim is not just revenue growth but revenue growth that takes the cost of revenues into consideration. It's "a bottom line ROTCE focus," Raghavan said.

The UK, Germany, the Middle East, China, India and Japan are areas of geographical focus. 

Raghavan also offered some pointers on how to praise your boss. Citi CEO Jane Fraser has offered "remarkable" leadership, he said, repeating remarkable many times.

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