Andy Sieg, the 58-year-old head of wealth management at Citi, has got a difficult job. He may have made it harder for himself.
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Bloomberg reports that Sieg, who joined Citi from Merrill Lynch in 2023, is the subject of complaints by at least six Citi managing directors. The bank brought in law firm Paul Weiss to investigate him after a referral from the head of HR.
Among other things, Sieg has reportedly been accused of “expletive-filled rants, sarcastically disparaging an executive to a group of colleagues after the person had left the room, and calling an individual’s work “pathetic” with the person and colleagues present.”
Citi didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment. A spokesperson for the bank told Bloomberg that Sieg is a respected and “hard-charging leader” who joined with a clear mandate for change.
Sieg was hired by Citi CEO Jane Fraser, who has long championed him in conference calls. Fraser reportedly even travelled personally to Sieg’s Connecticut home to persuade him to join the bank. Bloomberg claims that some of the complaints about Sieg concerned his conduct “earlier in his career,” before joining Citi.
Sieg’s propensity for annoyance was highlighted earlier this year when he was reported to have vented about the wealth management division’s accidental transfer of $6bn into a customer account. This seemed understandable in the circumstances.
When he arrived at Citi, Sieg instructed his new colleagues to avoid managing up as he set about cutting hundreds of millions from Citi’s wealth management cost base. However, by April last year, Citi insiders were already voicing complaints about Citi’s reliance on hired-in external talent instead of internal veterans. By July, 17 senior people on Sieg’s team had quit for Bank of Montreal. Bloomberg highlights other departures from his team, including Ida Liu, the former head of Citigroup’s private bank who left in January and Kristen Bitterly, a senior wealth executive. Sieg allegedly undermined Liu.
The results of Citi’s investigation into Sieg have not been made public. We have not spoken to Sieg for this article and he didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment. Citi is standing by him. The bank says Sieg is a respected leader and that, “We look forward to Andy continuing to drive strong business performance.”
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