The 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group formed Citigroup. The deal united Citicorp’s commercial banking and international financial services with Travelers’ insurance and investment businesses, creating one of the world’s largest financial-services companies.
The merger was announced in April 1998 and initially operated under a temporary legal structure because U.S. law then restricted commercial banks from owning insurance businesses. The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, passed in 1999, removed many of those barriers and allowed the combination to continue.
Citigroup adopted the distinctive red umbrella associated with Travelers as part of its early branding. The company later sold Travelers in 2005, separating the insurance operation from the banking group. That divestiture is a common source of confusion: Travelers helped create Citigroup, but it is not still part of the modern company.
The transaction is often cited as a landmark financial merger because it anticipated the creation of broad, multi-service financial conglomerates.