Citi names Vikram Pandit as CEO

Citi has appointed Vikram Pandit as a replacement for its previous chief executive officer, Charles Prince, who stepped down in November after the bank faced writedowns of billions of dollars on its mortgage-backed securities business.

Pandit was most recently chairman and CEO of Citi’s institutional clients group, which comprises Citi Markets & Banking and Citi Alternative Investments. Previously, he was a founding member and chairman of Old Lane, a hedge fund and private equity fund manager acquired by Citi in 2007. Before founding Old Lane, Pandit held a number of senior positions at Morgan Stanley over more than 20 years, including president and chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley's institutional securities group, which included the bank’s investment banking, fixed-income and capital markets businesses.

Sir Win Bischoff, who has been acting CEO since Prince stepped down, will take on a new role as chairman of the bank. He succeeds Robert Rubin, who will return to his responsibilities as a member of the Citigroup board of directors and chairman of the executive committee. Bischoff served as chairman of Schroders before joining Citi in 2000, when Schroders' investment banking business was acquired by a Citi predecessor company. Before his role as acting CEO, he chaired Citi's businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In the months before Prince's departure, Citi reported a total writedown of $3.55 billion on its fixed-income and credit businesses for the third quarter of the year. In early November, it announced further writedowns of between $8 billion and $11 billion on its US subprime exposures.

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