Approximate 200 million customers, accounts and more than 116 countries. Huge by anybodys measure. Since become ceo in 2012 he has focused on leveraging cinemax network to Service Institutional and Consumer Banking clients with an emphasis on strong execution and the highest ethical standards. He has been at citi and his Predecessor Company since his graduation from harvard with a bachelors degree in economics in 1983. Prior to his current role, he has held a variety of ceo positions for citigroup including ceo of europe, middle east and africa, ceo of citis holdings get can ceo citis gll Wealth Management unit and head of citis Global Corporate and global commercial bank. He is i can involve with civic and cultural organizations including his roles in executive Committee Member of the partnership for new york city and as a board of trustee of the United States ski and snowboard association. Id like to introduce dust and will be moderating today, our moderator testing is an awardwinning senior reporter. Im sure many of us sees articles on a regular basis. During his tenure has covered the Automotive Industry collapse and resurgence, global supplier, conglomerate bankruptcies and multibilliondollar mergers and acquisition deals. Things that many of us in this room have become personally with over the years. He served as an expert source on national and local television and radio programs. Dustin has also won several awards including the alliance of every business publications best local coverage of the National Economic story award for his coverage of in sourcing manufacturing from overseas in 2012. He attended grand Valley State University and studied journalism. Ladies and gentlemen, i would like to bring mike up to the stage and welcome dustin for when hes going to do the questions and answers. Mike, if you want to, and then we will share some remarks. Thank you. [applause] thank you, betsy, for that very warm welcome. I would like to thank steve and the leadership and membership of the Detroit Economic Club for this opportunity to speak to such an influential group. When business and government leaders founded this forum during the depression, our nation faced tensions and challenges that were exacerbated by both the social and political environment. I think the same in many ways could be said of our country today. Americans have lived through the financial crisis, while the governments response at least in my opinion was the right one, the crisis has left me feeling as if the system is stacked against them and absolved wrongdoers of accountability. Too many people in our country it feels like our era the fine Economic Trends things like globalization have hurt and economically and while we have historically low unemployment, wage growth has been stubborn and many live with the anxiety of having their jobs disrupted by technology. The wealth gap has widened. To me believe that their children will have fewer opportunities than they had, and many in our country have lost faith in the american dream. And i think thats caused some today to question whether our capitalist system is, in fact, the right one. For my part i believe in capitalism. I believe in free markets. I believe in the right of Free Enterprise to conduct their business, and i believe in responsible and reasonable regulation. We would not be the country we are today without these. But i also believe that for our business to strive and thrive in todays society, we need to help solve the societal challenges that we all face here we cannot be on the sidelines. We need to have Business Models that have a positive impact on society and dont rely solely on philanthropy to show that we are solid corporate citizens. Creating shareholder value, in my opinion, will always be necessary, but creating stakeholder value is critical. Today these two goals are more closely connected than ever before. People increasingly are demanding that private enterprise play a role in finding solutions to the challenges that we face. Employees for their part want to work at companies that reflect their own values and their priorities. Our approach to some of these issues is that at our core and at our best, we work with our clients to solve problems. With significant Financial Resources to deploy, we are scaled to serve our clients and help them compete in todays economy. The clients could be anything from a Multinational Company like ford, where i had the pleasure of privilege of spending time this morning. It could be one of our commercial banking clients, like edward lecky, a legend in Road Construction founded on a handshake between its namesake and henry ford. Or could be a Public Sector client, including local governments like the state of michigan. Our commitment to solutions can be seen through three decisions that we make every day, who we work with, how we work with them, and how we treat the people who work for us. Think about one of the Biggest Challenges facing our nation today. And thats our failing infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers today estimates we will fall 1. 5 trillion short of the required Infrastructure Investment needed by 2025. Not only are the implications for Public Health and safety, theres an Economic Cost to the status quo. The estimated annual cost of highway congestion, 120 billion. Airport congestion. Airport congestion and delays, another 35 billion. Thats where a bank like ours can help. Our Balance Sheet allows us to finance projects that would be out of the reach of some smaller institutions. Just last year, citi provided financing for 26 billion in u. S. Infrastructure projects, including bridges, hospitals, airports, water, and public power. I would like to mention one project which we did in detroit which we are particularly proud of. And that was during the bankruptcy. Citi committed 60 billion for own Balance Sheet and sexually underwrote another 200 200 million in bonds on behalf of the Public Lighting Authority of detroit. Those funds financed the installation of over 65,000 efficient streetlights, improving the quality of life throughout the city. [applause] another challenge, Affordable Housing. I mention the economic pressure to Many Americans feel acutely. Over 11 million low income households in the u. S. Today comprise over a quarter of all rental households. Of those, 70 spent more than half of their income on rent and utilities. To address this urgent need, last year citi provided 6 billion in financing for the construction and reconstruction of more than 36,000 Affordable Housing units. That level of support not only set a new record for us at citi, it maintained a ranking as the leading financier of Affordable Housing in the u. S. For the ninth year in a row. And how about Climate Change . While some may doubt its existence, we believe its real and that its accelerating, and that our collective efforts to address it are the greatest combination of opportunity and risk that we face. According some of the most recent compelling scientific assessments, we cant afford to wait to take action. Serious impact on Climate Change will be on extreme weather events like the devastating hurricanes that weve been experiencing in the past few years, and at the same time we need to recognize that many people depend on the faults fol industry for their livelihood. We have clients in this sector, and we are not going to walk away from them. Instead, we are what with many them to support their transition to a low carbon economy, creating green collar careers in the process. In 2014 we made a ten year, 100 billion Environmental Finance commitment Funding Clean Energy and other sustainable projects, including the first offshore wind farm in the country. Theres great demand for this capital, and as a result of that we will meet our goal this year which will be four years ahead of our plans. Let me be clear. None of these projects are transactions ive described up to this point are primarily rooted in altruistic, philanthropic, or idealistic content. They are core banking activities conducted on behalf of citi clients, and yes, they all contributed to our bottom line. However, their value and benefits accrued in many stakeholders including our communities, our society, our u. S. Economy, and more broadly the Global Economy. Any one time today that employers still cannot fill. Pathways to Progress Initiative is designed to close the job skills mitch match by 2000 young people over six years with the tools they need to training, Work Experience experience and entrepreneurial opportunities. At 100 million the largest in our companys history and i hope shows our willingness to put our profits back into the communities that we serve. Earlier this year we broadened the scope who feel they have been on the wrong side of globalization or Digital Innovation to secure employment and Growth Industries like health care, Transportation Technology and construction. Several organizations here in detroit are involved in this 10 million effort. Focus hope is launching a Robotics Program for people looking to build careers and automation, advanced manufacturing and information technology. All helping to grow our economy here at home. A point of view on certain issues affecting our colleagues and communities. They are directly impacted by the parkland massacre. We decided we needed to think about where our clients intersected with this issue. We do not seek to take the place of government and we have never intended to offer the perfect solution. Much less a new form of gun control. I owned guns for recreational purpose and i am a Firm Believer in the second amendment. Our commercial firearms policy simply asks our Retail Sector clients to use accepted best practices if they sell firearms. These include age restrictions, completed background background checks and no sale of bump stocks or highcapacity magazines. These sale practices are followed by major retailers including walmart, exploiting goods and strong public support even among many gun owners. We also recognize that how we operate as a company is an opportunity to demonstrate our values. We focused on building a better city making it as free as racial gender and other biases that we can. We disclose a raw pay gap. Our analysis globally. 71 of the media pay for men showing that there is a significant issue of representation of women in senior roles at our firm. While transparency is great, it is what you do with your data where the rubber actually hits the road. We set a goal to have mid senior level leaders in our firm filled by females by the end of 2021. We measure our progress against that quarterly. I am happy to say that these issues are increasingly affected by our clients in the Business Community more broadly. In august, the Business Roundtable and organization of ceos of Major Companies announced that it had revised its principles of corporate governance. A revised statement said that the responsible business should also take into account the interests of other stakeholders. Such as colleagues, clients, suppliers and communities. As an example, i have decided to show it is not just the case when other stakeholders win or shareholders lose. Business is not, nor should it ever be a zerosum game. Up until recently, they just did not have enough credibility to take on social issues. Earlier this this year, some evidence submerged of a new attitude a Public Affairs firm publish its annual barometer. The results revealed, i believe, a profound shift in the degree of trust that people have for one class of company and that is their employers. 75 or three out of every four people interviewed globally said they trusted their employers to do what is right for them and for society. That is a welcome shift. Perception and a development that business should take pride in. I believe if Companies Continue to see their role as creating value for stakeholders as well as shareholders, our country will be stronger. Our system will continue to show why it creates more opportunity than any other anywhere. Thank you for having me here today. I look forward to having our discussion. I would like to invite dustin on stage. Thank you. [applause] thank you. That was delightful. Okay. I really want to do a deeper dive into a lot of these social topics that you spoke of. I would like to get your barometer on the economy and where it is going. Usually when the Global Economy or the National Economy stumbles , we fall down a well. What are you seeing in the economy that, we are seeing some recessionary indicators, what are you thinking long term here . I have talked publicly, that in my 36 years of being in the industry and kind of being around, companies, i have never really seen a time more like lists. We are effectively 10 years into a recovery from the great financial crisis. By historical standards, that is long. True. But we have to remind ourselves that recoveries have no memory. My friends remind me, 26 years into years into their recovery. I think that as we look at the economy today, it cannot be looked at through a single lens. That is when we look at the world. We have a combination of economics, social, social, political. We also have the tearing or the strata of what we would think of as the consumer business and government. I think to really understand where the u. S. Economy and the Global Economy is today, in some ways we need to take those apart. When you look at the United States today, two thirds of our economy is dictated by the consumer. By the way, the consumers are in pretty good shape. Go back go back to the crisis and think about how intervention was done and where stabilization came from, effectively to the consumer to things matter most. One is their job, do i have a job, can i keep a job, if i dont have one, can, can i get one . As we saw last week, weve got to go back to 1969 to find a job market with lower unemployment than we have today. The second piece is housing. We can argue pockets are things. Certainly, many consumers consumers around the world. Often a proxy for their retirement. If you feel pretty good about your job and your home, they will be engaged. That is exactly what we see. Business has been a bit flighty. Throughout these 10 years, business has been engaged. It has. It has been disengaged. In and out. But business has probably been more conservative. I think the other piece, we are 10 years into what i describe as unprecedented massive project called quantitative easing. Unprecedented in terms of trillions of dollars around the world. As we look and things that we can escape in this economy is the impact it has had on Interest Rates. Did we ever think any of us with gray hair that we would look around and find several Major Economies in the world with negative Interest Rates . We operate in those places and it is a strange phenomenon. You go to somebody and say give us your deposit. By the way, you will pay to put your deposit in our bank. It redefines the traditional paradigm of how people think about things. I dont believe, and i think weve heard out at our central bank that it has not necessarily transmitted as well and that for now we are saying we are not a believer in those negative rates. All of that has had an impact. You have to look at the other pieces around. This morning you wake up and its china. It is braxton. It is u. S. Mca and what is going to happen. The volatility has been destabilizing to business. Fortunately, weve had the backbone of a healthy, strong consumer. Im running short on time. I want to get into this idea of corporate americas role. Historically, its been the government role. Wellbeing to its constituents. You now see that role as sort of being taken on by corporate america. Does that mean our government is failing us or does that mean something has changed . What is a fundamental change where you think your company has to do the things you just talked about. From our perspective, as we look at some of these issues, i talked a bit about guns, but if you look at issues we choose to get involved with, it goes back and really starts at home around our employees in the expectation of our employees. Wanting to come to work for company they can be proud of. Most of the stances significantly, most of the stances that we take our very internally focused around ourselves and our clients. We do not go out in Public Forums to speak about them. In the world that we live in, i think taking those stances and people understanding the values of their company is really critical. Sure. That makes total sense. In this day and age, everything is political. Guns are definitely political. How did our conversation, i mean, you, you had to go to the board with this, i assume. How did how did that conversation go . We are, as a bank, we are all highly regulated entities. It is interesting that we went back and neck say looked and asked the team can you come forward and show me our prescribed commercial firearms policy. We actually really did not have one tiered which, by the way, we have a policy a policy for everything. And then to really look. As i said in my remarks, we did not look to reset boundaries or change things, but how do we act responsibly with our clients around the things that they are doing and how should we use the firm to support those efforts in a positive direction . Look at what we did there and very simply, some age restrictions. Training. A full background check. We will give you a weapon. Around these modifications that, modifications that, you know, generally serve no commercial purpose or no suicidal purpose being at the center of these. Kind of working with our clients to be able to kind of put those things forward. Now things that we simply invented and put out. We were in direct consultation with our clients to try to promote some best practices. Was there a lot of pushback on that or no . We did not expect it to be smooth. The response was as predicted. One is that i had people sending emails all my gosh greatest thing ever done to people with expletives less than thrilled with it. I would say, in general, though, people found our response thoughtful and balanced and very much was viewed as a positive. Obviously, youve also also brought up Climate Change. Another hot button issue. Most economists seem to overwhelmingly support a carbon tax. You publicly said you do not buy into a carbon tax. Youve also said government should create other incentive toward sustainability. Like what . To put some texture to it, its not that i dont believe in carbon tax, it has been quite effective, but i but i dont think it can be the all and the endall. The combination of caret and stick. We have to have a balance in the way we approach these things. How do we get businesses to the table to choreograph or descriptor their own transitions towards what their companies of the future will be. In there, what we want to do is be in a role of supporting them. We do not want to have to take on the mantle of actually being prescriptive of them do the things they can or cannot do. All of these companies, my company included, we are on a journey and a journey and a transition. We can as a country, we can as a world. No more fossil fuels. We have to come up with the alternative sources, the ways of improving the ways we use it and that is a journey and requires the help of banks to facilitate that shift. I think a great is what is happening today around the reaction of Financial Markets towards those companies that are acting responsibly. You look at the whole invention and evolution of green bonds. Where bonds are being issued. Financing is being offered. Its being offered at better rates than it otherwise would be offered to companies that are actually dedicating those monies towards this transition. You get to go down that path, we are willing to help you in that journey. You mentioned income inequality. Several of the candidates are calling for aggressive measures. Higher income taxes. Et cetera. What role can corporations play in battling inequality in the system . Serving a roll to society. How do we educate people and how do we do that. What are the things we can offer i talked in terms of not just investing in the communities that we serve. Modernization of job skills and retraining. Not just training around the younger, but actually retraining some of the existing workforce. I think if we all come together in these and understand what it is that we are trying to shake, i think we actually have the ability to do this. Obviously, in the state in every state, trying to get most post secondary education. If we look at the prediction of the Fastest Growing jobs, they are all income jobs. 61 created in michigan at 1 . Education in the future at work. I am sure your numbers are right. You have to go back up a level. Think about the United States today. Eighty82 of our economy is service based. Sixteen17 . Agriculture and low single digits. As you describe, as you described that job evolution or kind of what is happened, we are either recycling people out of likely manufacturing jobs where we are bringing new entrants into service job and that is the fastestgrowing of our economy. These people are coming in not necessarily slow, but they are getting those skills and we would hope that they would have the upper trajectory to continue to move up. When we think about our economy today, by the way, when you think about the Global Economy today, 80 Services United the United States. This is in a transition that were facing alone. Kind of wrapping up. Period i have one minute, so we have to keep this quick. We have seen a lot of uncertainty. Trade deals that have not been locked up. It is a new thing every single day that we are not quite sure what the future holds. How do you balance with their customers that are trying to expand. Howd you bring uncertainty to their decision. We have tried, a company that has been around for 270 years, this is not our first rodeo as a company that operates in many places around the world. We have seen these things before. I think we bring a time perspective and i think we bring a breath of perspective back here around dealing with these issues. Again, we try try to take the intermediate and longerterm view. If we sat and watched every day the volatility of the market, you would drive yourself crazy. But how do we actually look at the things that are important to make the right investments and do the right things to support our clients. Give them the ability to make the decision over the proper term rather than acting to todays headline and trying to provide that support, that insight, financing the capital that gives them the ability to do that. Thank you. Coming back up for the q a portion. [applause] alright. We will spend a little time here. See if i can get this working. Going through some of the questions from the group, maybe just follow on the last topic you are talking about. Sort of the trade wars. What impact do trade wars have on the actual Banking Industry . Talking a lot about your customers. Perhaps you can switch that and talk a little bit about how that is in cities specifically. The bulk of the impact in many ways is the Second Derivative or the second function. As bankers, our business is a function of our clients need desire success challenges. Clearly what has happened is around trade, around terrorists, we have seen uncertainty put in. We have seen reaction from our clients of the rerouting of trade groups. As an example, the u. S. Was a massive exploiter of soy to china. We instantly saw those trade routes reroutes that said argentina and brazil filled in to become the exploiters to china. We seen supply chain diversification. Our ability to be able to support them as they are dealing in real time with some of these changes, it is is critical. Clearly, from a first function, it is impacting the market, its impacting many things that we have to deal with on a daytoday basis. It is much more the second function events that we are focused on. Okay. Great. You mentioned just briefly, one of the questions that surrounded that, what impact would it have on the city and other Banking Institutions in the u. S. . I had a very high level official in yesterday from the uk government. I said to him and his team with all due respect, whatever it is, just, just get on with it. Weve been living this for long periods of time. We all believe we are about as wellprepared as we can. The uncertainty around it from a business perspective is the biggest challenge. We do not know exactly what the ramifications will be. We do not know how the border issue will get solved. We do not know how trade agreements will be structured. As we look at the uk, our presence in the uk, it is an important place and will stay and import templates. As is europe. We will be forced to deal on wherever they come out on the issue. Just give us certainty. The ability to plan and we will process it and move on. Questions about crypto currency. What your general thought about crypto currency. How does it affect your business. Your international business. Maybe just talk a little bit about crypto. And your thoughts about that. We talk about crypto currency , someways i want to create a delineation, often times when we talk about crypto currency, this very dark view. A speculative vehicle. Other bad activities. Those activities which i think are very legitimate. I think where we have had some challenges, some of the crypto currencies that have been introduced are not necessarily currencies. They are specular vehicles. They are not not necessarily commercially usable in any kind of regular sense. It is only a matter of time until we get what i would call the Digital Currency. The Digital Currency as coming as a replacement of Paper Currency or a supplement to pay for currency today. It is likely in the nottoodistant future. We will see them begin to issue that. Their approach towards a stable, what they call a stable value currency. A basket of currency behind it. And maybe has a broader use. Like anything, i dont think we should be dismissive of it. I think there will be an evolution to it. I think that there will be choices around. Good. Thank you. You talked a lot about sustainability in cities and responsibilities tiered will city consider only doing business with Companies Committed to the paris climate agreement. How do you think about the overall environment that were living in. A believer. Some of it may have impact or direct ramifications in terms of that. There is much more to it around creating responsible sustainable paths to the future of our business. We are here and really what we want. I think my fellow bankers would sympathize or agree, we do not want to be in the position of shedding or enforcing your policy. We really want to be in the position of you working with your stakeholders to create the right path forward for your company. Buyin in the round. Supporting you on that journey. We dont want to be the traffic cop. We dont want to be the person rationing valuable resources. We want to be the encouragement and the support of whatever that transition that was brought into feels like. How do you deal with legal uncertainty. Obviously that is something that a lot of people in michigan are talking about. A nationally chartered bank. The decision is is easy. We are prohibited high law. We were to be part of that in the United States. We would be be breaking our charter. We would be breaking the law. We would lose our license. That would be a bad day. What we are pushing four, like many things, this being governed at the state level, our National National politicians need to take this topic on. I think they need to come to terms in a federal approach. More than happy to support that. There is one question that came in. Speemac. Leading College College and leading the workforce. What are some suggestions or thoughts that may be even help you as you graduated from college and moved on. The things that make a difference to an employer and maybe some advice around that. As i said earlier to the group, my wife and i have a 36 and 20yearold. The same advice that i give them in the same that i give our people joining our Company Every year. Keep your base wide. We are in this world that is changing so rapidly. I have this narrow view of where they want to go and what they want to become. As giving me all the flexibility through life. When i think that 36 years a row a go and what the hot sectors were and werent, if i had focused myself into those things, i likely would have, probably would have gone backwards in my career to retool myself. The widest space being billed. Naturally, your career path will narrow itself. They are four seeing it. One last question before i can go into the lightning round. The appropriate level. It would limit the ability for 2008 to occur again. I do feel we are somewhere in the zone. What i mean by that is we talked about, what i what i talked about publicly is we are not talking at all for dodd frank to go away. What we would really love is a harmonization of regulation tiered we have a lot of regulation in our industry put forth between the years 2008 and 2012. Some of those regulators do not actually agree on what those regulations say. Please pick one. We have multiple regulators all taking different approaches. All expecting us to be compliant with the differing views of the regulation. When you look at the capital in the industry, the liquidity in the industry, i think it is a completely different industry today than it was. Around stress testing and all the things that we do on a very regular basis. I think the numbers show that they have the ability to withstand 2008 and beyond. Okay. Great. This tradition with these meetings, we like to have a lightning round. These are. These are quick questions. Longer short answers. Something on your bucket list. Something on my bucket list would be in the himalayas. I can tell he would talk about fishing. He would talk a lot about that. A person other than a Family Member that you would like to have lunch with. David mccullough. One of your favorite songs. Happy birthday. [laughter] as long as you are standing up, thats great. Favorite teen growing up. Pittsburgh steelers. Your best sport. Best or favorite . Give me either. My best sport was growing up playing football in college. Fly fishing. Absolutely. Last book you read. Last book that you read. I read a book called the road sky scholar. One of your favorite movies. Shawshank redemption. Favorite vacation spot. Italy. Describe detroit and one word transformational. Last one. Advice to your 25yearold 25yearold son itself. I gave a little bit of it. I would also say take advantage of the world. One piece of advice that i learned and i give my kids and i give anybody anybody who listens, as you were growing up, your life is never going to be less complicated than today. Take advantage of that. Great. Thank you very, very much, mike. [applause] thank you. Cspan campaign 2020 coverage continues. Today at six pm live on cspan. Elizabeth warren hold a town hall in norfolk, virginia. Headline saturday at one pm eastern. Senator Bernie Sanders at a rally in new york at a rally in new york city. Watch on cspan any time on cspan. Org. Listen wherever you are using the free cspan radio at. Conducting a survey on americans attitude. We ask how committed the Political Parties are to making sure elections in the u. S. Are fair and accurate. The committed. They are not. Meanwhile, 61 of americans think democrats are committed to fair and accurate elections. Why the discrepancy, largely due to those that identify as independents. 48 of those believe the Republican Party has a commitment to fair and accurate elections. 60 of self identified independents believe of self identified independents believe the same of the democratic party. We also ask him which trust and confidence voters have in the wisdom of the American People when it comes to making choices on election day. 46 had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in their fellow americans decisions. Looking at the partisan breakdown on the answers, only republican show a majority on the question. You can find all the results including whether americans think that states and localities should be able to decide the election processes. It is a house Natural Resource subcommittee hearing on the creation of the Smithsonian National latino museum. Witnesses include new york them a credit congressman who introduced a bill to create the new museum. This is about one hour 20 minutes. Good morning. The subcmi
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