“You can be a straight talker without being an unpleasant person,” Ms Jane Fraser said in 2018, long before she became Citigroup’s chief executive officer nearly three years ago.

In 2024, Ms Fraser will be testing this to its limit now that Citigroup has finally begun its long overdue remodelling job. She is trying to repair the bank’s poor returns by excising layers of management and dismantling regional fiefdoms. Thousands of jobs are being cut. For some staff, the uncertainty will last well into the first quarter.