How the party ended for Wall Street bank’s Málaga experiment

In 2022, while bankers complained to invest in young people from a breakfast boom, Citigroup had a solution to bring and retain new talents: a better balance in life in working in Costa del Sol in Spain.

The American bank rented 27 analysts to work from a newly opened office in Málaga-a city that is preferred by tourists and Spaniards because of its cocktail from the sun, the sea, restaurants, and bars-for eight hours and free weekends.

City’s competitors have described a propaganda trick that would do little to change the culture in Wall Street. But Manolo Falco, then the head of the bank’s international banks, insisted on “this is not a way to circumvent.”

Less than three years later, the office was closed and most employees moved to London. A handful of employees with sunset has been abandoned in an initiative designed to separate from the traditional working conditions faced by novice analysts who do a lot of active business in investment banking services.

The former employees who worked in the Citi Málaga office, as well as the project participants, says that the reality is different from the bank’s stadium, with many long working hours in the hope of obtaining desirable roles in cities such as London and Paris.

“This flexibility was marketed as the essence of the offer was not really respected,” said one of the former employees at Málaga. “If you want to succeed and move to London, you will not be able to do it without doing the same working hours as people there.”

The project was imagined by the trio of CISHO Gutiérrez-Or asia, who was then CITI president in Europe, the East Banking East and capital markets; Maria Diaz del Rio, Chief of Staff in this work; Falcó.

The team looked at various countries, including Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic, but it fell in Spain – by encouraging the mayor of friendly work approach in málaga.

Both analysts are appointed from a group of more than 3,000 applicants for an industrial team in London. If they perform well at the end of two years, Málaga may be a starting point to a city job.

The operation was largely managed by DEL RíO, which helped to appoint young bankers to different teams, and was a large manager to manage transformations so that analysts did not work for long hours.

But former employees say that the promise of the job in London, where they could be at the heart of the event, made them feel that they should work for longer hours in order to distinguish than their peers.

A person familiar with the initiative said: “Many employees of máaga were miserable,” said a person familiar with the initiative. “There were a lot of promises, but a little progress.”

“Its focus on enhancing movement efforts and integrating our centers” was clear in successful applications by many of our Málaga colleagues to hold positions in our centers in London and Paris, “City said. The bank did not specify the number of málaga employees who were transferred to other sites.

Beginning analysts in Spain says they have greater flexibility, but for those who wanted to move forward, the status of work was at the same hours as their counterparts in London while they won half of the salary.

Citi analysts in Málaga said they offered a salary of $ 55,000, while their peers increases in the main financial centers such as London and New York $ 100,000.

“It is very personal about the work you were doing,” said one of the employees. “The more you are ready to abide by the case, the more projects you got.”

They added that málaga staff were not ready to allow themselves until the early hours of the morning, as they may not be allocated to the most demanding delegations that could give up their chances of moving.

Banks are struggling with how to attract and keep talents, especially during the boom of deals that followed the epidemic when young employees complained of fatigue and 100 hours of work.

The junior bankers in Goldman Sachs described the “inhuman conditions” in a presentation group that sparked a wave of new initiatives, which included at least at least the weekend or an end to the hours of hours that employees can register.

But the balance between work and the best life between novice employees is inconsistent with the demands of investment banking services, where the hours that were registered and hard work are often the currency to gain promotion.

One of the CITI employees in Málaga, who moved to London, described the culture inside the office as a “really special” because he gathered young people of different nationalities who were keen to do a good job.

“Maybe I will not be able to work in an atmosphere like [the] The person said again “again.”

But the negative aspect of the new initiative, which includes 20 passions-was launched shortly before the start of the CEO of Jin Fraser to restructure the bank-a shortage of supervision of the distant CITI managers.

Del Rio’s departure as part of the restructuring in 2024 means that there was no one to supervise the group, and the employees of Mullaj felt women. One of the former employees said: “She had her negatives, and the absence of the elderly there.”

When the office was opened for the first time in the summer of 2022, there was an office manager supervising the category of analysts that remained for about a year. After that, there was a roundabout for the elderly who entered and left the office and there was a long extension as there was no great presence at all.

“We had a six -month period when we were completely forgotten,” said former employee.

They added: “When there was no manager, there was pure chaos, there were people who would not have seen them for months, the morale was very low.” There was a bad presence in the office, as it became increasingly clear that City was likely to close it and did not replace some employees who left for other jobs.

City said in a statement last week that the decision to close the office was part of its strategy “simplifying the company and making improvements to how we work.”

The stakeholders say that the málaga office was a victim of the Bora Bora project, the name of the inner code used for the main restructuring of Citi. With DEL RíO in the bank and both Falcó and Gutiérrez-Orant in various roles, no one supports the case.

“People lost focus because of [the restructuring] Without this force, he pushed it forward, who supports this? Another person involved in the program said.

For many analysts in Málaga, the Sunshine coast was a gap in a better job in London. But for those who were hoping to provide investment banking services a different thing, City’s proposal only puts a plaster in a major case.

One of the employees said: “We sold the dream, but the reality was very different.”