Citigroup is rolling back employment diversity initiatives, CEO Jane Fraser said in a Feb. 20 memo, following similar actions taken by major companies as corporate America navigates a shifting business climate.

“The recent changes in U.S. federal government policy, including new requirements that apply to all federal contractors, call for changes to some of the global strategies and programs we’ve used to attract and support colleagues from various backgrounds,” Fraser said.

“We will no longer have aspirational representation goals except as required by local law. We will no longer require diverse slates of candidates and diverse panels of interviewers.”

The company will continue to encourage the inclusion of “a variety of perspectives” in hiring decisions, Fraser said.

Citi is renaming its “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Talent Management” team to “Talent Management and Engagement.” It said that “complying with the law means we will continue providing equal employment opportunities.”

“We will not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any type,” it said.

The bank’s decision to end diversity policies comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office calling for an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The order also applies to all government contractors.

Citi is a federal government contractor and has signed deals with government agencies.

For instance, in 2017, the U.S. General Services Administration awarded Citi a contract related to government charge card and payment solutions. Citi was selected to provide services under the contract through 2031.

Getting rid of diversity in its employment is a marked shift for Citi.

In the bank’s 2022 annual report, Fraser said the bank was committed to advancing DEI initiatives. Citi had announced that it became “the first major U.S. bank to set a recruiting goal for LGBTQ+ candidates.”

According to data from Statista, white employees made up 53.2 percent of the bank’s U.S. workforce in 2019, which declined to 43.91 percent in 2023.

Whites were the only racial group to see their share of employees decline during this period, while Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, and blacks/African Americans all saw employment gains.

In the Feb. 20 note, Fraser said it was “important to note that we’re living in an environment where things are changing quickly.”

“We will determine if additional updates are needed to other areas in the coming weeks. For example, certain business-specific initiatives and our supplier efforts need further evaluation before we have clarity about the responsible path forward,” she said.

Bidding Adieu to DEI

Citi follows several major companies that have also announced action against their DEI initiatives.

Last year, Boeing dismantled its diversity program, with Sara Liang Bowen, a company vice president who led the DEI department, resigning from her post in October.

A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, told The Epoch Times last month it was ending the use of DEI in hiring, development, and procurement services.

Diversity targets were eliminated and procurement policies that previously prioritized vendors on the basis of gender or race were adjusted. Programs aimed at promoting underrepresented groups were scaled down, according to an internal Meta memo.

The same month, retailer Target announced it was rolling back DEI policies and ending its “Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025 as planned.” The company said it was stopping “all external diversity-focused surveys,” including the LGBT group Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

Last week, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said the bank was dropping a requirement that mandated IPO clients to include minorities and women on their boards.

Trump’s crackdown on DEI policies has been met with opposition. This month, a coalition of groups sued to block such executive orders, claiming these actions violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Plaintiffs in the case are nonprofit groups receiving federal funding that enables them to provide services to “people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities.”

Some experts warn that the trend of ending or scaling down DEI initiatives by companies may only be a rebranding attempt rather than truly putting an end to such programs.

“Boeing, who just got rid of its [DEI] department, noted in the press release that none of them were laid off; they were distributed across the company in other roles,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told The Epoch Times.

Tim Schwarzenberger, a portfolio manager at Inspire Investing, said the notion that DEI is dead or was on life support is wrong.

Tom Ozimek and Kevin Stocklin contributed to the report.