Wall Street's response to tariff shock: client calls and bonus worries

Ross Kerber - Reuters - 10/04
With markets crashing after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his latest tariffs, Citigroup’s banking head Viswas Raghavan called a global meeting of senior bankers on Monday and told them to get on the phone with their clients.
  • Severity, speed of Trump's tariffs took markets by surprise
  • Bankers worry the turmoil will erode revenue - and bonuses
  • April 2 announcement derailed, delayed several IPOs, other deals
  • Tariffs cause 'confidence shock' for investors in US assets
April 10 (Reuters) - With markets crashing after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his latest tariffs, Citigroup’s banking head Viswas Raghavan called a global meeting of senior bankers on Monday and told them to get on the phone with their clients.
Raghavan's message was simple, according to one banker on the call: Stay close to clients because if you do not, a competitor will. Raghavan told them to assure clients that Citi, which nearly collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis, had plenty of funds this time to weather the tariff storm, said the banker, one of two who recounted the call.

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Citi’s global meeting, which has not been previously reported, was one of many at banks across Wall Street since April 2, when Trump unleashed a tariff war that has wiped out trillions of dollars in market value across the globe – a painful bleed that was only stanched on Wednesday when he relented, announcing a 90-day pause on duties against some countries.
Citi declined to comment. Raghavan could not be reached after business hours on Wednesday.
In interviews, more than half a dozen investment bankers and money managers said they had spent days talking to clients who make everything from cars to insulated mugs to sportswear, helping them grapple with the swift and dramatic consequences of Trump's lurches on trade.
At Citi, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), opens new tab, Bank of America (BAC.N), opens new tab, Lazard (LAZ.N), opens new tab and elsewhere in conversations spreading into this week, several bankers said, they strategized how to respond to a flood of calls from corporate clients as they privately worried about their own bonuses this year.
Goldman Sachs and Bank of America declined to comment. Lazard did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.

'OH MY GOD'

The advice to corporate clients, several bankers said: Stay away from forecasting too much, given the uncertainty from the White House.
Clients were worried about jobs, the economy and credit, a senior financial industry executive said: “We get on the calls and people are saying, 'Oh my God, what's happening?'"
The flurry of behind-the-scenes conversations with clients, some detail...
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