64 M C K I N S EY Q UA RT E R LY F T E R B E C O M I N G CEO in March 2021, Jane Fraser launched a multi year strategy to transform, simplify, and modernize Citigroup for the digital age. That’s an enormous challenge for a bank with a presence in 180 coun tries. The result is a trim company on a single plat form that has left certain legacy businesses and entered new ones. In this conversation with McK insey’s Eric Kutcher, Fraser talks about the transfor mation, the role of AI and blockchain technologies, and the state of the global economy. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. Eric Kutcher: As I often say, we live in interesting times. Given you are probably one of the most global CEOs in the world, and certainly in the bank ing industry, as you travel the world, what are the trends you’re seeing? Jane Fraser: Something that has really been rein forced for me this year is the mindset that different countries and companies have—and who’s on the front foot and who’s not. You could almost divide the world into the countries and companies that are building what they need with a view to the future, and those that are more focused on protecting what they already have. Broadly, I think of Europe as being in quite a “protect what we have” mindset, whereas the US, China, and the Middle East are very much in a “build what we need for the future” mindset. Another difference I see is regarding whether growth is a team sport or a tug-of-war. If you go, say, to the Middle East—I find this exciting in Saudi Arabia or Abu Dhabi—there is this sense that the whole of the team is playing each of their individual sports, but they’re driving the same agenda. Whereas in other countries, it’s either a tug-of-war or the entire team is standing in front of the goal, playing defense. I M A G E S C O U R T E S Y O F C I T I Citi CEO Jane Fraser addresses a company town hall in Singapore. ‘You could almost divide the world into countries and companies building with a view to the future, and those focused on protecting what they have.’ And then you’ve got all these shifting geo politics, which are changing flows of technology, - - - - - - - - I M A G E S C O U R T E S Y O F C I T I