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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsBank of America was the larger bank by reported 2025 revenue, while Citi’s strategy is more concentrated on cross-border institutional services, markets, banking, wealth and a U.S. personal bank. Bank of America reported $113.1 billion of 2025 revenue, about 53% from net interest income and 47% from fees. Citi reported $85.2 billion, up 6% on a reported basis, with net interest income up 11% and non-interest revenue down 4%.
Those figures do not identify a better investment by themselves. The banks use different segment definitions, face different geographic and business exposures, and require a same-date review of credit trends, capital, valuation and execution before an investor can reach a current conclusion.
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The direct answer: what separates Citi from Bank of America?
Citigroup and Bank of America are both large U.S.-based banking companies, but their earnings engines are not interchangeable. Citi presents five businesses—Services, Markets, Banking, Wealth and U.S. Personal Banking—with a strong emphasis on transaction services, trade-related activity, institutional clients and cross-border needs. Bank of America reports Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management, Global Banking and Global Markets, with residual activities in All Other. Its annual report describes a more balanced mix between interest income and fee-generating businesses.
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For fiscal 2025, Bank of America had the larger reported revenue base and generated $30.5 billion of net income. Citi’s reported revenue was smaller but grew 6% year over year, led by net interest income. Bank of America also disclosed approximately $30 billion returned to shareholders through repurchases and common dividends. The official materials used for this comparison do not establish a directly comparable Citi shareholder-return total.
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An investor choosing between the stocks should therefore compare the companies along six axes: business mix, geographic and institutional exposure, sensitivity to rates and market activity, credit quality, capital and regulatory capacity, and the execution of each strategy. A valuation decision requires market prices and the latest filings on one common date; the 2025 reports alone do not show which stock is cheaper or the better buy.
2025 comparison at a glance
| Measure | Citigroup | Bank of America | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported 2025 revenue | $85.2 billion; up 6% on a reported basis. Citi 2025 Form 10-K | $113.1 billion. Bank of America 2025 Annual Report | Bank of America was larger on this single-year revenue measure. Revenue is not net income and does not adjust for credit costs, taxes or capital needs. |
| Revenue composition | Net interest income rose 11%; non-interest revenue fell 4% in 2025. Citi 2025 Form 10-K | Approximately 53% net interest income and 47% fees for 2025. Bank of America 2025 Annual Report | Citi’s reported change was driven by interest income while Bank of America showed a roughly balanced annual mix. |
| 2025 net income | Not stated in the supplied 2025 comparison materials. | $30.5 billion, versus $27.0 billion in 2024. Bank of America 2025 Form 10-K | Do not infer Citi’s profitability or relative return from revenue alone. |
| Return measure | Not stated in the supplied comparison materials. | 14.2% return on average tangible common equity in 2025. Bank of America 2025 Annual Report | Tangible-equity returns should be compared only with the same definition and period for Citi. |
| Reportable businesses | Services; Markets; Banking; Wealth; U.S. Personal Banking. Citi 2025 Form 10-K | Consumer Banking; Global Wealth & Investment Management; Global Banking; Global Markets; All Other. Bank of America 2025 Form 10-K | Labels and allocations differ, so segment revenue and margins are not automatically like-for-like. |
| 2025 common-stock distributions | A directly comparable full-year amount was not established in the cited materials. | Approximately $30 billion returned: $21.4 billion of repurchases and $8.1 billion of common dividends. Bank of America 2025 Form 10-K | Historical distributions depend on capital, regulation, liquidity, performance, market conditions and alternative uses of cash. |
How the two banks make money
Citigroup: five interconnected businesses
Citi’s 2025 filing organizes the company into Services, Markets, Banking, Wealth and U.S. Personal Banking. Services gives prominence to transaction banking and activities that support institutional clients moving money, managing liquidity and handling trade-related needs across borders. Markets captures trading and related client activity. Banking covers corporate and investment-banking work, while Wealth serves affluent and high-net-worth clients. U.S. Personal Banking is the company’s consumer franchise in its home market.
Citi’s shareholder letter says the company is focused on serving institutional clients with cross-border needs, expanding wealth management and operating a valued personal bank in the United States. Chief Executive Jane Fraser described the structure this way: “Our focus is now around five interconnected businesses — Services, Markets, Banking, Wealth and U.S. Personal Banking — each with a clear path to accelerating growth, gaining share and increasing returns.” The statement is a strategic objective, not a guarantee that every business will grow at the same rate. Citi 2025 shareholder letter
This mix means Citi investors need to watch institutional client volumes, payment and transaction activity, trading conditions, investment-banking pipelines, wealth balances and the performance of the U.S. consumer franchise. Cross-border flows can create opportunities when clients expand internationally, but they also expose results to economic conditions, currencies, regulation and geopolitical developments in multiple markets.
Bank of America: consumer, wealth, corporate and markets platforms
Bank of America reports Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management, Global Banking and Global Markets, with remaining operations in All Other. Consumer Banking covers household deposits, lending and related services. Global Wealth & Investment Management is driven by client balances, flows and advisory or investment activity. Global Banking serves companies and institutions, while Global Markets reflects sales and trading and related market businesses.
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The company’s 2025 annual report describes revenue as approximately 53% net interest income and 47% fee revenue. That balance gives investors several operating indicators to track: deposit levels and loan demand in Consumer Banking, asset and client flows in wealth, corporate lending and treasury relationships in Global Banking, and trading conditions in Global Markets. Bank of America 2025 Annual Report
Bank of America’s “All Other” category matters when comparing consolidated results because it contains activities outside the four reportable segments. A segment comparison that ignores this residual category can misstate how much of the company’s earnings comes from a particular operating platform.
Why the segment names cannot be matched one-for-one
Citi’s Services business is not the same reporting unit as Bank of America’s Global Banking, and Citi’s Banking segment is not a direct equivalent of Bank of America’s Global Banking segment. The companies can place shared costs, legal entities, products and balance-sheet items in different categories. Before comparing a segment’s revenue, expense or return, read the definitions, reconciliations and eliminations in each 2025 Form 10-K.
What the 2025 results say—and what they do not
Revenue scale and growth
Citi reported $85.2 billion of 2025 revenue, a 6% increase on a reported basis. Its net interest income increased 11%, while non-interest revenue declined 4%. The combination indicates that the year’s top-line growth came from the interest-income side rather than broad-based gains across every revenue category. The filing’s reported basis and fiscal year should stay attached to the numbers when they are used in an investment model. Citi 2025 Form 10-K
Bank of America reported $113.1 billion of 2025 revenue. The annual report’s approximate 53%/47% split between net interest income and fees suggests a less interest-dominated presentation for that year than Citi’s reported growth mix, although the companies’ accounting presentations and segment structures differ. The larger revenue figure does not automatically mean higher profitability, stronger capital generation or a superior per-share return. Bank of America 2025 Annual Report
Net income and return on tangible equity
Bank of America reported $30.5 billion of net income in 2025, up from $27.0 billion in 2024. It also reported a 14.2% return on average tangible common equity for 2025. These are different measures: net income is an absolute profit figure, while tangible-common-equity return relates profit to a defined capital base. Citi’s cited materials do not provide a directly comparable figure in this assignment, so no relative profitability conclusion can be drawn from these numbers alone. Bank of America 2025 Form 10-K
Why revenue is an incomplete scorecard
Banks can report different revenue totals because of interest-expense presentation, trading marks, hedging, insurance or other classification choices. Credit provisions, funding costs, taxes, legal expenses, operating investment and required capital can convert similar revenue growth into very different earnings available to common shareholders. An investor should move from revenue to net income, diluted earnings per share, provisions, efficiency, tangible equity and capital ratios using each company’s own reconciliations.
Shareholder returns and capital allocation
Bank of America’s disclosed 2025 distributions
Bank of America’s 2025 annual report says the company returned approximately $30 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, an increase of 41% from 2024. Its Form 10-K specifies $21.4 billion of common-stock repurchases and $8.1 billion of common dividends during 2025. Those amounts describe completed activity during that fiscal year; they are not a forecast of the next payout. Bank of America 2025 Annual Report Bank of America 2025 Form 10-K
The filing says repurchase timing and size depend on capital position, liquidity, operating performance, alternative uses of capital, the share price, regulatory requirements and market conditions. The board declared a quarterly common dividend of $0.28 per share on February 3, 2026, payable March 27, 2026, to shareholders of record on March 6, 2026. This declaration is a dated corporate action, not a promise that future quarterly dividends or buybacks will be unchanged. Bank of America 2025 Form 10-K
What is known about Citi’s payout
The official materials cited for this comparison do not establish a directly comparable full-year Citi 2025 shareholder-return amount. An investor who wants to compare payout ratios, buyback yield or dividend growth must retrieve Citi’s capital-actions disclosures and use the same fiscal period, share-count convention and market-data date used for Bank of America. It would be misleading to label one bank the larger payer from the figures presented here.
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Key risk and sensitivity differences
Interest rates and funding
Net interest income depends on asset yields, deposit costs, loan volumes, securities portfolios and the speed at which rates reset. Citi’s 11% 2025 increase makes rate and balance-sheet assumptions especially important when projecting its results, but the figure does not reveal how much came from rates, volumes or mix. Bank of America’s approximately 53% net-interest-income share means rate scenarios also matter, alongside the fee businesses that made up the remaining approximate 47%.
Markets and client activity
Citi’s Markets and Services businesses connect earnings to institutional flows, transaction volumes, trading conditions and cross-border activity. Bank of America’s Global Markets has similar market sensitivity, while its consumer, wealth and corporate platforms provide other drivers. A weak trading quarter, a slower deal pipeline or reduced client activity can affect the two companies differently depending on the mix at that time.
Credit quality and provisions
Consumer cards, mortgages, commercial loans and corporate exposures do not deteriorate at the same pace. Compare delinquency trends, charge-offs, reserve builds or releases, criticized loans, nonperforming assets and provision expense in the latest filings. Do not infer credit quality from revenue growth or a single year of net income.
Capital, liquidity and regulation
Capital requirements constrain dividends and repurchases, particularly after stress testing or changes in supervisory rules. Review common-equity capital, risk-weighted assets, liquidity resources, regulatory buffers and management’s stated capital plans. Bank of America’s filing explicitly links repurchase decisions to these factors; the same discipline should be applied when assessing Citi’s future distributions.
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Strategic execution
Citi’s stated plan requires execution across five interconnected businesses while the company continues to simplify and improve returns. Track expense progress, business exits or reorganizations, control investments, regulatory milestones and returns by segment. For Bank of America, monitor whether its consumer, wealth, corporate and markets platforms sustain the balanced revenue model described in the annual report.
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Valuation and market expectations
A stock can look inexpensive on earnings, tangible book value or dividend yield because investors expect weaker future earnings, higher credit losses or greater execution risk. The supplied 2025 materials do not provide a matched current share price, price-to-tangible-book ratio, forward earnings estimate or relative valuation conclusion. Use closing prices from one date, the latest share count and the latest filing for both companies before making a valuation judgment.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A practical, like-for-like comparison process
- Set one information date. Download the latest Form 10-K, earnings release and regulatory capital disclosures for both companies available on the same date. Do not compare a current price for one stock with an old price for the other.
- Reconcile the income statements. Record total revenue, net interest income, non-interest or fee revenue, provision expense, operating expenses, pretax income and net income. Keep each company’s fiscal year and accounting labels beside the figure.
- Map the businesses before comparing them. Read the segment descriptions and “All Other” or corporate reconciliations. Create a personal map of consumer, wealth, corporate/institutional, transaction-services and markets activities rather than assuming similarly named segments are equivalent.
- Separate rate effects from volume effects. Examine deposit balances and pricing, loan growth, securities yields and funding costs. Ask whether a change came from a one-time mark, a rate reset, a balance change or client activity.
- Test credit under stress. Compare charge-offs, delinquencies, reserves, criticized exposures and provisions by consumer and commercial category. Build at least a mild and a severe loss case instead of relying on a single management forecast.
- Check returns against capital. Use return on average tangible common equity only when both companies disclose the same definition and period. Pair the return with tangible book value growth, common-equity capital and required buffers.
- Analyze distributions as residual capital. Start with earnings and capital generation, then subtract regulatory needs, balance-sheet growth and other uses. Treat declared dividends and completed repurchases as historical evidence, not guaranteed future cash yield.
- Apply a common valuation date. Calculate price-to-tangible-book, forward price-to-earnings and dividend yield from synchronized prices and estimates. State the date, share count, estimate source and whether the metric uses reported or adjusted earnings.
- Write an explicit thesis and disconfirming signal. For example, a Citi thesis might depend on stronger institutional and wealth returns; a Bank of America thesis might depend on durable consumer deposits and fee generation. Define the credit, capital or execution evidence that would invalidate the thesis.
Which type of investor may prefer which profile?
| Investor priority | Questions to ask about Citi | Questions to ask about Bank of America |
|---|---|---|
| Global institutional growth | Are cross-border Services, Markets and Banking gaining share, and are returns improving as planned? | How much of Global Banking and Global Markets growth comes from corporate relationships versus market conditions? |
| U.S. consumer scale | Is U.S. Personal Banking producing acceptable returns alongside Citi’s institutional businesses? | Are deposits, loan demand and credit performance supporting Consumer Banking earnings through the cycle? |
| Wealth expansion | Are Wealth balances, flows and productivity increasing within the five-business strategy? | Are client balances, flows and advisory activity lifting Global Wealth & Investment Management returns? |
| Income and buybacks | What current capital-action disclosures support a sustainable payout comparison? | Can the 2025 distribution pace continue after capital requirements, growth and market conditions are considered? |
| Risk control | Are simplification, controls and regulatory execution reducing uncertainty? | Are credit costs, capital buffers and the All Other category behaving as expected? |
This table is a decision framework, not a recommendation. The right choice depends on the price paid, the investor’s tolerance for credit and market-cycle risk, and whether management meets the operating milestones that matter to the thesis.
Common mistakes when comparing the stocks
- Using revenue as a proxy for value. Revenue does not capture provisions, taxes, capital intensity or dilution.
- Comparing unlike segments. Citi’s Services and Bank of America’s Global Banking include different products and allocations.
- Treating a declared dividend as permanent. Future distributions remain subject to capital, liquidity, regulation and performance.
- Mixing fiscal years and market dates. A 2025 operating result paired with a share price from a different reporting period can produce a misleading multiple.
- Ignoring “All Other” or corporate items. Consolidated earnings can differ materially from the sum of a casual segment comparison.
- Assuming strategic language is a result. Citi’s five-business objective describes direction; investors still need evidence of growth, controls and returns.
- Calling one stock cheaper without current data. The cited reports do not establish a current relative valuation.
What to read next in each filing
For Citi, start with the business and segment sections, the management discussion of the five businesses, net-interest-income and non-interest-revenue explanations, risk factors, capital and liquidity disclosures, and the shareholder letter’s discussion of strategic execution. The primary filing is the Citi 2025 Form 10-K, supplemented by the 2025 shareholder letter.
For Bank of America, read the segment descriptions and reconciliations, the 53%/47% revenue discussion, net-income and tangible-equity-return measures, credit and capital sections, and the details of repurchases and dividends. The primary documents are the Bank of America 2025 Form 10-K and Bank of America 2025 Annual Report.
The disciplined conclusion is straightforward: Bank of America was larger by 2025 reported revenue and disclosed substantial shareholder distributions, while Citi offered a different, more cross-border and institutionally oriented business mix with reported revenue growth led by net interest income. Deciding between the shares requires current valuation, matched definitions and evidence that each bank is converting its strategy into durable, risk-adjusted returns.
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