Citigroup opens Malaga hub to offer junior bankers better work-life balance
Citigroup has opened a new hub for junior investment bankers in the Spanish seaside city of Málaga on the Costa del Sol.
The US bank selected 27 of more than 3,000 applicants to work at its new Spanish hub, as part of a two-year programme promising work-free weekends and eight hours days.
In locating its hub in Malaga, Citigroup hopes to get ahead in the battle for talent by drawing in those applicants put off by the punishing workloads that are common in London and New York.
The hub on Spain’s southern coast will offer Citigroup’s analysts a more leisurely lifestyle than the one available to those working in the world’s major financial centres, amid growing criticism of burnout in the financial sector.
Analysts working at the Spanish hub will however receive around half as much money as colleagues working in Citi’s main offices.
Citi’s global co-head of investment banking told the Financial Times the plans are aimed at reducing “churn” by offering staff a better work-life balance.
Concerns about burnout in the sector peaked last year after a group of Goldman Sachs junior employees left the investment bank after leaking a PowerPoint presentation complaining of 105-hour workweeks and an “abusive” work environment.