Citibank

Is Citibank safe?

For a US saver under the FDICDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary limit, yes. Deposits at Citibank, N.A. are insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per ownership category, the same as at any other US bank. The questions are about everything above that line. Citi carried a CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary of 12.78% at 30 June 2026 against a requirement of 11.6%, it needed the largest US bank rescue of 2008, and it has spent six years under consent orders to fix its controls. We score it 68/100, the lowest of the four big US banks.

Two very different Citis

Most of Citi's business is not retail. It is a global bank for corporations and governments, moving cash, clearing payments and trading around the world. That shapes its balance sheet. Of $1.49 trillion in deposits at the end of June 2026, a large share came from corporate treasury accounts, far above any insurance limit. Such deposits are usually stable because companies run payrolls and payments through them, but they are not the household savings that make Wells Fargo so hard to run on.

Its liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary averaged 113% in the second quarter of 2026, with $641 billion of high-quality liquid assets. That is comfortable, not generous.

Capital: a stress buffer that says something

Citi's requirement is high because the Federal Reserve's stress tests set its stress capital buffer at 3.6%, compared with 2.5% at JPMorgan and Bank of America. In plain terms, the Fed's models expect Citi to lose more capital in a severe recession. The bank clears the bar by about 1.2 points.

	Moody's	S&P	Fitch
Citibank, N.A.	Aa3	A+	AA- (positive)
Citigroup Inc.	A3	BBB+	A (positive)

The holding company's ratings are the lowest of the four big US bank parents we cover. The operating bank, where deposits sit, is rated much higher.

The 2008 rescue

Citigroup came closer to collapse than any other surviving US bank. In late 2008 it received $45 billion of TARP capital and a federal guarantee against losses on about $301 billion of assets. The government converted part of its stake into common shares and sold the last of them in December 2010, at a profit for taxpayers. It is a good result for the Treasury and a poor mark for the bank.

Six years under consent orders

In October 2020 the Federal Reserve and the OCC issued consent orders requiring Citi to overhaul risk management, data quality and internal controls, and the OCC fined Citibank $400 million. The orders followed a costly error that August, when Citi accidentally sent about $900 million of its own money to lenders of the cosmetics company Revlon.

Progress has been slow. In July 2024 the Federal Reserve fined Citigroup $60.6 million and the OCC $75 million because the bank had not fixed its data management fast enough. The OCC's 2024 amendment also made Citi submit a review of the resources it spends on the fix; on 18 December 2025 the OCC removed that amendment, though the original 2020 orders are still open. In May 2024 the UK's Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority fined Citigroup Global Markets £61.6 million in total over trading controls, after a trader's input error in May 2022 led to about $1.4 billion of shares being sold on European markets by mistake. In its June 2026 filing, Citi describes the transformation as "a multiyear endeavor that has not been linear".

None of these cases involved fraud against depositors, which is why conduct scores 45 rather than lower. But they show a bank whose plumbing has repeatedly failed.

Practical points for Citi customers

• Check which entity holds your account. US accounts are with Citibank, N.A. Accounts opened abroad are with local banks or branches, under that country's scheme. After Citi's exits from consumer banking in many countries, your account may now belong to another bank entirely.
• Keep each ownership category under $250,000 in the US. Joint, retirement and trust accounts are insured separately.
• Treat any call asking you to move money to "protect" it as fraud. Citi will not ask you to transfer funds to a new account.
• If you hold large sums, splitting them between banks costs little and removes the dependence on any one bank's controls.

How we scored it

Deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary (90) is as strong as at any US bank, and capital (74) is adequate. Stability history (40) is the weakest factor because of the 2008 rescue, and conduct (45) reflects six years of consent orders and fines for slow remediation. For a global bank with a cleaner recent record, compare HSBC or JPMorgan Chase.