Paco Ybarra, Global Head of Markets and Securities Services
About Paco Ybarra
In a July 2023 interview with Bloomberg, Paco Ybarra, then CEO of Citigroup's Institutional Clients Group, discussed the state of investment banking and trading revenues. He described the slump in investment banking revenue as one of the longest the industry has experienced, longer than the period following the financial crisis, and stated that he believed it was more likely to turn around than to worsen. Ybarra noted that while trading revenues appeared weaker compared to the 2021-2022 period, they remained healthy relative to 2019 and 2020 levels, and he pointed to ongoing uncertainty in interest rates as a driver of continued trading activity. Ybarra also commented on the impact of regulatory changes on bank operations. He stated that the final regulatory regime was still unknown and that banks would adjust once the rules were finalized. He attributed shifts in bank business models to capital constraints and the regulatory environment, saying that some activities banks previously engaged in no longer made sense. Regarding leverage in the financial system, Ybarra said that while leverage is always present when problems occur, the issues seen in the system had been "relatively well digested" and were not "gigantic." In a 2017 investor day presentation, Ybarra said that Citigroup was "very well positioned for whatever comes" and that the company had "done a lot of the hard work" to bring its businesses to leading positions.