That was a slight improvement of two percentage points from last year, according to an internal analysis.

In similar job positions in the same location, women on average are paid 99% of what men are paid, on a par with last year's results, the bank said.

Citigroup began disclosing "raw" pay gap figures globally last year in response to shareholder pressure to disclose how much less it pays women than men.

A British law that went into effect in 2018 forced corporations to disclose unadjusted pay gap figures for their operations in that country annually, but Citi is the only bank that voluntarily discloses the global metrics.

“As we’ve said before, transparency breeds accountability and we took that important first step last year in disclosing our pay equity results," head of global human resources Sara Wechter said in a statement. "We know the pressure to make progress will continue and we welcome it.”

For minorities in the United States, Citi said the median pay was 94% of the median for non-minorities, up from 93% last year.

The third-largest U.S. bank has said it wants female employees to hold at least 40% of roles at assistant vice-president level through to managing director level by the end of
2021, with 8% of such roles in the United States held by black employees. (https://reut.rs/30nQ6gi)

Activist investment firm Arjuna Capital lobbied U.S. Wall Street firms to disclose and close gender pay gaps at shareholder meetings last year.

"The lack of diversity in the upper echelon‘s of Wall Street will not be solved in one year, but over the course of many," said Natasha Lamb, managing partner at Arjuna. "This is a great start, and Citi goes well beyond peers who have not even disclosed these raw numbers."

(Reporting by C Nivedita in Bengaluru and Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Tom Brown)

By C Nivedita and Imani Moise