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DECEMBER 5, 2012, 9:22 AM

Citigroup to Cut 11,000 Jobs and Take $1 Billion Charge

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

8:04 p.m. | Updated Citigroup's announcement that it will slash 11,000 jobs worldwide underscores its major contraction since nearly collapsing during the financial crisis and its continuing battle against high operating costs and persistently sluggish markets. The cost-cutting fervor, including tens of thousands of Wall Street jobs slashed in recent years, is expected to continue at Citigroup and other banks as they combat sagging stock prices, lackluster revenue and new regulations that damp profits. The cuts at Citigroup, many coming from its global consumer banking business, reflect a new emphasis on aiming at commercial banking jobs, some bank analysts said, rather than mainly eliminating investment banking positions. With pressure mounting from shareholders, Citi has been trying to bolster returns, in part by working through a glut of bad loans and systematically dismantling some businesses. The job cuts amount to 4 percent of the work force and will bring the company's head count down to about 250,000, down by a third since before the financial crisis in 2007. The bank's shares increased more than 6 percent on Wednesday. The moves, the first since Michael O'Neill, the bank chairman, abruptly deposed Vikram S. Pandit as chief executive and replaced him with Michael L. Corbat, were seen as another retrenchment from Citi's former position as a financial megamarket in the United States and around the world. But the announcement did not signal a new strategy or direction for the nation's third-biggest bank by assets. "Ultimately, it misses the point," said Michael Mayo, an analyst at Crdit Agricole Securities. "They need a more radical restructuring." Since the abrupt power change in October, which sent shock waves across Wall Street and left some within the bank rankled by the brutal transition, there has been unease throughout the upper ranks of Citigroup, according to several people close to the bank. Much of that wariness stemmed from a concern that Mr. O'Neill would work through the new chief executive to impose an unflinching round of cuts that further pare down the bank, according to these people. A career banker and Marine, Mr. O'Neill had tussled with Mr. Pandit over the lack of speed in

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Citigroup to Cut 11,000 Jobs and Take $1 Billion Charge - NYTimes.com

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trimming costs after taking the helm of the board in 2009, according to several people close to the board. The latest cuts come after exhaustive meetings in November that convened nearly every head of the bank's businesses at Citigroup's Park Avenue headquarters in New York, according to several senior executives at the bank. During the meetings, which lasted for three days, Mr. Corbat demanded that each head of the business units justify the costs associated with their operations. Earlier this week, Mr. Corbat briefed the board, which has been very vocal about its desire for a leaner Citi, according to several executives at Citi. "These actions are logical next steps in Citi's transformation," Mr. Corbat said in a statement. "While we are committed to - and our strategy continues to leverage - our unparalleled global network and footprint, we have identified areas and products where our scale does not provide for meaningful returns." At a financial services conference Wednesday, John Gerspach, the bank's chief financial officer, described the downsizing as "part of a continuum." Citigroup joins other banks that are scaling back their international and domestic operations as they struggle to compete in a perilous global economy, like the Swiss bank UBS and the British bank HSBC. Bank of America is in the process of slashing 30,000 jobs companywide. As part of the slimdown, Bank of America said it was shedding 750 branches. Citi's global consumer banking business took the hardest hit on Wednesday, with the bank saying it will eliminate 6,200 positions and close 84 branches worldwide, including in Brazil, Hungary and South Korea, with 44 closings in the United States. Citi will vastly reduce its footprint in some countries and leave five others entirely, including Turkey and Pakistan. An additional 1,900 jobs will be removed from Citi's capital markets and transaction processing units. An estimated 2,600 jobs will be cut from its back office operations as well. The changes will result in a charge of about $1 billion in the fourth quarter, but are expected to save the bank $900 million next year and $1.1 billion annually starting in 2014, the company said. Such draconian job cuts will continue, the analysts said, as banks try to wring more profits from simple lending and retail banking operations, particularly because once-major moneymakers like complex derivatives are restricted by regulation. Wall Street has been sloughing off jobs by the thousands since the financial crisis, with major banks announcing reductions of more than 150,000 jobs since the start of 2011, according to Richard Stein, a senior partner in the financial services practice at Caldwell Partners. For New York, the cost-cutting could have profound financial ripple effects. Already, jobs in the securities industry within New York have fallen more than 15 percent from their 2007 peak of 213,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. New York, where Citi currently employs an estimated 22,000 people, will lose about 1,700 positions in Wednesday's announcement.
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Citigroup to Cut 11,000 Jobs and Take $1 Billion Charge - NYTimes.com

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Even the top echelons of Wall Street are at risk, some people within the industry said. "You are going to see more senior level cuts in the next wave," Mr. Stein said. In recent years, Citi has limped toward profitability, after nearly toppling during the financial crisis and receiving a $45 billion lifeline from the federal government. Since then, the bank has been sharply reducing its expenses and trying to shed even more troubled assets. But those efforts have been dogged by missteps and turmoil. In March, for example, the Federal Reserve dealt a stunning blow to Citigroup when it scuttled the bank's plans to raise its dividend or increase share buybacks. Shortly afterward in April, the bank's shareholders, in a rare move, voted against a $15 million pay package for Mr. Pandit. Alone, Wednesday's moves are not enough, some banking analysts said. Although Citi has an expansive international banking presence that dwarfs its rivals, it has failed to capitalize on that, Mr. Mayo said. The bank is distracted, analysts said, by inefficient relationships within its corporate client divisions where, at times, many bankers approach the same clients with advice on deals and loan pitches. The cuts sought to eliminate some of those overlapping relationships.

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