citigroup

Retired head of Citigroup John Reed seems to have some misgivings about the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, which his company lobbied to kill in the first place.  More »

The huge salaries and bonuses paid to executives of banks and other firms that received government bailout funds have been the subject of a lot of taxpayer rage. The Obama administration listened, and will order pay cuts.  More »

True to its name, we suppose, Citibank will be focusing its marketing efforts on six major U.S. metropolitan areas and wealthy customers, and not the rest of us deadbeats.  More »

Under government pressure — and by "pressure" we mean asking meekly in a very soft voice — companies that have received funding from the taxpayer-funded TARP program have outlined the controls they plan to put in place to limit "luxury expenditures." And — surprise! — the definition of "luxury" is very different for the corporate titans spending your money. While most big banks have put at least some limits on personal use of corporate jets, many seem to echo Bank of America's policies on official use, which state that that execs can use private planes for "safety and efficiency reasons," no advance approval required.  More »

Remember all of those banks that were "too big to fail" and had to be bailed out? Newsweek's Niall Ferguson is out with a report today pointing out that a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers signaled the start of the bailout boom, they're still big, and thanks to the safety net you tossed them, they're "back to making serious money and paying million-dollar bonuses. Meanwhile, every month, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans face foreclosure or unemployment because of a crisis caused by ... a few Wall Street giants."  More »

The AP is reporting that Citibank will be raising salaries for certain employees by as much as 50% in order to offset the new bonus restrictions. The company faces the restrictions because it took bailout money.  More »

Bloomberg is reporting that Citibank is planning to spend at least $3.2 million for basic construction, and as much as three times that much after architects fees and other expenses are paid, to renovate the executive offices at the bank's Park Avenue headquarters.  More »

Did Citi set up its "homeowner helper" site to comply with Obama's mortgage assistance programs, but then not actually attach it to any humans that will help homeowners? After inputting his info on the site, Citi told reader CoarseLive to schedule an appointment with a representative. No one ever called him. When he tried calling Citi directly, multiple agents told him they had no idea what he was talking about, and they hung up on him, again and again. His story, inside...  More »

Bad day on Wall Street today, folks. The S&P 500 closed at the lowest level since April 1997.  More »

The New York Mets are getting a new stadium. It'll be called Citi Field and that honor cost Citibank (and by extension, one could argue, taxpayers) $400 million.  More »

Yesterday, we wrote that Citigroup had decided to spend $50 million of its bailout money on a French luxury jet to ferry execs around town. The White House was not pleased about this.  More »

With $45 billion in taxpayer funds burning a hole in its pocket, Citigroup is purchasing a $50 million Dassault Falcon 7X, according to the New York Post. Apparently none of the existing jets that ferried execs to Washington to ask for bailout funds was ironic enough.  More »

Federal regulators took extreme steps to prop up Citigroup, backing $306 billion of mainly real estate loans and securities and directly injecting money by buying $20 billion of preferred stock. The $20 billion of stock will pay an 8% dividend. Regulators will also get an additional $7 billion of preferred stock. Citigroup will basically halt dividend payments for 3 years and limit some executive pay. It will also implement the FDIC's loan modification plan, which is close to the one it had already announced for itself.  More »

If you have a Citigroup-issued credit card and you haven't had a rate increase over the last two years, expect to be notified of a 2-3% rate increase on your November statement. Congratulations! You're going to help Citigroup offset its losses in the global credit card division, whether you were directly part of those losses or not. As the New York Times points out, by doing this Citigroup is breaking the promise they made to Congress in 2007 that they would not arbitrarily raise rates on accounts—which may be why they're offering a fairly lenient opt-out policy.  More »

What do Wachovia customers need to do now that Citigroup owns your ass? Absolutely nothing. You can do all your online and offline banking just like nothing happened. No temporarily held funds, no chained and locked bank branches. Everything is the same. Even your bank's regulator remains the Office of the Comptroller of Currency. Down the road there will likely be a few alterations, most of them cosmetic. Read our post "Insiders: Probable 1-Year Timeline For Customers In WaMu To Chase Transfer" for some of the changes you can expect.  More »

Part of Wachovia will remain independent -- including its massive brokerage business which ballooned after it purchased AG Edwards in 2007, as well as its Evergreen investment management division.  More »