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Citigroup is expanding its policies around diversity, the latest U.S. company to retreat from its target to promote a more inclusive workforce.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has intensified backlash against the goals of diversity, equity and inclusion, leading companies to abandon goals that were achieved just a few years ago.
In a memo to staff Thursday, CEO Jane Fraser wrote that unless required by local law, the bank will no longer have ideal representative goals and do not require “various candidates and various groups of visitors”.
Citi has set diversity targets for assistant vice chairs in 2022 until the board of directors is at least 43.5% female, 11.5% black and 16% Latino.
As part of the change, Citi also changed the name of its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Talent Management team to Talent Management and Engagement.
Fraser said the changes came after “development related to all American institutional diversity initiatives.”
“It is important to note that we live in an environment where things change rapidly,” she wrote. “We will determine if additional updates in other areas are needed in the coming weeks.”
Citi’s changes are only two months away from Erika Irish Brown, head of global talent at the bank, telling people that HR news media that DEI is “the business is imperative” and “our DNA Part of it.”
Citi has about 230,000 employees worldwide and joined the roster of corporate giants such as Accenture and Walt Disney after Trump won the election in November.
Wall Street rival Goldman Sachs also abandoned a commitment to only undertake public companies with a certain number of different board members, even though the bank has implemented internal diversity goals.
The DEI program has been around in the U.S. company for decades, but the program gained momentum in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd.
Critics argue that these programs prioritize demographic factors rather than granting the benefits of the job.
