We asked 2 of Citigroup's top executives what they look for when hiring senior investment bankers

• Citigroup's investment bank has been showing signs of progress and competing among Wall Street's best.
• We asked two of the bank's top executives what they look for when hiring senior investment bankers.
• Performance matters, but it's not the only thing. "We can't have people on solo missions," says Raymond McGuire, Citi's global head of corporate and investment banking.

Citigroup's investment bank has been making strides in recent years to compete for top honors in the league tables.

The bank, already a strong performer in arranging bonds and loans, has made marked progress in 2017 in both its mergers-and-acquisitions advisory and equity-capital markets businesses.

One key to Citi's success is talent - retaining their top performers, but also bringing in star bankers that will fit into Citi's team culture.

"The foundation to this, the bedrock to this is talent. You have to make certain that you have the talent that is the best trained, that has the best experience, that can exercise the most refined judgment," said Raymond McGuire, global head of corporate and investment banking, who's personally involved in every major strategic hire for his department.

Citi has hired more than 20 at the managing director level around the world for its corporate and investment-banking division this year, according to a memo McGuire sent his staff in early November.

And the bank this week promoted 33 staff in its corporate and investment bank to managing director, along with seven staff in capital markets origination.

Business Insider recently spoke with McGuire and Tyler Dickson, the global head of capital markets origination, about what they look for in hiring senior-level bankers:

Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.