Citi appoints trio in bid to revamp board
CITIGROUP continued its management reshuffle at the weekend, appointing three new directors as part of efforts to demonstrate its commitment to change to appease US regulators and government.
The bank appointed former New York state banking regulator Diana Taylor, Timothy Collins, chief executive of investment firm Ripplewood Holdings and Robert Joss, business professor at Stanford University.
The appointments bring the number of new directors in the past 12 months to seven, in answer to US government pressure to bring in figures with banking experience.
Citigroup, led by chief executive Vikram Pandit, also confirmed that Jerry Grundhofer, the former US Bancorp boss, would become chairman of Citibank, the lender’s core US banking business.
Grundhofer has been touted by some as a potential successor to Pandit should he step down. He was appointed to the board earlier this month alongside Michael O’Neill, William Thompson, the former chief executive of Pimco, and central banker Anthony Santomero, bringing Citi’s board to 17 members.
The US government’s stake in Citigroup will rise to 34 per cent by the end of the month, when the government converts the preference shares it bought as part of a $45bn bailout of the bank.
Pandit is spearheading efforts to turn Citigroup’s fortunes around, a process which has seen the bank split into a “good” and “bad” bank.
Good bank Citicorp houses traditional banking operations, while Citi Holdings is a vehicle for some of the bank’s riskiest investment assets and those earmarked for disposal.