Citigroup Seeks $5 Billion From Year’s First High-Grade Bonds

Citigroup Inc.’s banking unit sold $6.25 billion of bonds in its first investment-grade offering of 2026.

The company priced bank notes in four parts, with maturities ranging from two to six years, according to a person with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be identified. Price talk for the longest-tenored note tightened to a premium of 0.67 percentage point above Treasuries from about 0.95 percentage point initially, the person added.

The deal follows more than $120 billion of debt issuance by the five other biggest Wall Street banks this year, with record first-quarter sales above $65 billion , according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

The bonds are expected to be rated Aa3 by Moody’s Ratings, A+ by S&P Global Ratings and AA- by Fitch Ratings, the person said. The notes are operating-level debt issued by the company’s Citibank arm rather than the holding company, with proceeds for general corporate purposes.

The bank declined to comment on the offering.

Citi has lagged significantly behind its competitors in the issuance of high-grade dollar bonds in 2026. Its most recent sale was last September. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. kicked off the year with a $16 billion offering in January, the largest investment-grade bond sale ever by a Wall Street bank.

Following the easing of long-term debt requirements for a key capital rule, Citigroup had less urgency to sell bonds, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Arnold Kakuda wrote in a note on Thursday.

“This may explain the bank’s lag in bond issuance,” he said in an interview.

Citigroup is among three firms that sold more than $10 billion of US investment-grade bonds on Thursday.