Three candidates I'm currently working with are mid-loop at Citi, so I have pretty fresh intel on their recruiter phone screen. Sharing with their permission (anonymized).
The Citi recruiter screen is 20-30 minutes. It's an early gate, not a deep assessment. Their goals are: confirm you're a real human, verify your experience loosely matches the JD, explain the process, and gauge basic communication.
What they actually ask:
'Walk me through your background.' This is the opener. Have a 2-minute version ready. Don't read your resume to them.
'Why Citi?' Generic but mandatory. Have an answer. They know it's a common interview, you know it's a common question. Just have something that doesn't sound made up. Citi's scale, the global markets exposure, fintech transformation angle, whatever fits your background.
'What are you looking for in your next role?' A lot of candidates ramble here. Keep it to 3 sentences.
'Do you have any work authorization concerns?' Comes up early because it affects timelines, especially for roles with any international client exposure.
'Do you have a salary expectation?' You don't have to answer this in detail. You can say 'I'm open and want to make sure we're aligned on the level first.' Most Citi recruiters accept that.
What they don't ask at this stage: No technical content. No case problems. No system design. That's all later.
Timeline from screen to next step: Usually 5-10 business days. Some groups are faster. ICG Tech tends to be the most organized of the groups I've seen.
If your screen goes over 30 minutes because the recruiter keeps asking follow-up questions, that's usually a good sign. They're interested.