Citi names internal candidate as its next chief compliance officer

Two months after Citigroup said that Mary McNiff would leave the role of chief compliance officer for a different post, the New York megabank has chosen her successor.

Tom Anderson, who is currently the compliance officer in charge of Citi’s personal banking and wealth management businesses, will take over as corporatewide chief compliance officer on June 1, a Citi spokesperson confirmed Thursday. The news was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

Anderson, who started his career at Citi as a management trainee in commercial lending, is a former CEO of American Express Global Banking. He spent seven years at JPMorgan Chase in different compliance risk management jobs before returning to Citi last year.

Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

The switch in chief compliance officers comes as the $2.4 trillion-asset bank seeks to improve longstanding risk management and internal control system problems.

For the past 18 months, the New York company has been trying to address and correct a series of risk management-related “deficiencies” that were the subject of two consent orders issued in October 2020 by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Some analysts have said that Citi appears to be making at least some progress on regulatory compliance. Last month, the OCC freed the company from a 10-year-old consent order in which, among other issues, Citi was faulted for failing to implement an anti-money- laundering compliance program that had adequate internal controls and effective independent testing.

Regulation and compliance

Citi says it will hire new chief compliance officer

Mary McNiff, who has been in the job since 2020, will step into a new, unspecified role later this year. CEO Jane Fraser, who is dealing with the aftermath of two consent orders, has said that updates to the company’s risk management systems are her top priority.

By Allissa Kline

March 7

The Citi spokesperson did not have information to share Thursday about either McNiff’s future role at the company or when her new job will commence. McNiff, who has appeared several times on American Banker’s Most Powerful Women to Watch list, was promoted to chief compliance officer in June 2020, about four months before the Fed and the OCC issued their enforcement actions.

McNiff, who is one of 18 current members of Citi’s executive management team, is the company’s former chief auditor and a onetime Citibank CEO. 

In March, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told employees that the next chief compliance officer would not be part of the company’s executive management group. That same month, a company spokesperson said that Citi’s general counsel, Brent McIntosh, must oversee compliance under the terms of a Fed consent order.

Anderson will report to McIntosh, a Citi spokesperson said Thursday.