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Citigroup to slash 50,000 jobs worldwide
AFP - Tuesday, November 18
NEW YORK (AFP) - - Citigroup said Monday it would cut 20 percent of its global workforce, or some 50,000 jobs, as the US banking giant struggles with the global financial crisis and four consecutive quarterly losses.
The ailing bank was among the nine big US banks that agreed last month to give the US government equity stakes in exchange for a combined 125 billion dollars under a financial sector rescue plan.
The company, in a document for a presentation to employees by chief executive Vikram Pandit, said in a bullet point that the "headcount expected to be down 20 percent in the near-term from peak levels."
At that peak, in the 2007 fourth quarter, Citigroup had a global workforce of 375,000 employees. By the end of September the workforce had been trimmed to 352,000; the additional job cuts announced would pare it to approximately 300,000.
Citigroup, whose shares have been battered amid the credit crisis, said it was "getting fit -- fast!" and would reduce its expenses by 20 percent in the short term from peak levels. The cost-cutting measures would bring spending to approximately 50-52 billion dollars in 2009.
The further belt-tightening was signalled Friday when the bank announced it would make additional job cuts and that Pandit and other key executives had bought 1.3 million shares to show confidence in the company.
On Friday, Citi shares rose 0.74 percent to 9.52 dollars but ended the week some 24 percent lower. The shares have shed 70 percent since the start of the year, with the bank hit by hefty write-offs linked to the US real estate crisis.
The ailing banking giant, which has undergone several restructurings since last year to weather the crisis, has penciled in 2.1 billion dollars in charges this year for the planned elimination of 22,000 jobs, of which some 13,000 have been completed.
Last month, Citi reported a third-quarter loss of 2.8 billion dollars, its fourth straight quarter in the red.
The troubled bank is saddled with billions of dollars in losses tied to mortgage investments that lost value in the collapse of the US real estate market and the credit squeeze that erupted last year.
Since last year Citi has raised more than 50 billion dollars to shore up its balance sheet, reduced its investment portfolio by more than 100 billion dollars, reorganized activities and sold several businesses, such as CitiStreet, CitiCapital, BPO in India and a retail bank in Germany.
The US Treasury announced on October 14 that it had finalized the infusion of 125 billion dollars into nine major commercial banks as part of a 700 billion dollar financial system rescue plan.
In addition to Citigroup, the other major banks in the program were Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street and Merrill Lynch, soon to be taken over by Bank of America.
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