Welcome to the new X-Citi NYC web site

Welcome to the new X-Citi NYC web site

and
Congratulations for this new Citialum Web site !

go, visit and register at:
http://citialum.woodbridgedata.com

This is just a reminder to visit our new CitiAlum website and register -
our current mailing list will be shutting down soon and we don't want to lose touch.
While you are there, click on the "Events" tab to view details about our upcoming holiday party at the Peking Duck House on November 27th.

If you can attend, please RSVP to me.New this year....a holiday gift basket will be raffled off courtesy of Evergreen Gifts!

Best,

LibbyDubick & Associates
115 East 87th Street
New York, NY,
10128212-828-3873
www.dubickconsulting.com

annual CitiAlum holiday party on Tuesday, November 27th.

Come see old friends and make new ones

at the

annual CitiAlum holiday party on Tuesday, November 27th.

We’ll be celebrating in the private dining room

at the Peking Duck house,

236 East 53rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.)

Cash bar opens at 5:30,

four course buffet dinner starts at 6:30.

Dinner $30

Please RSVP to Libby Dubick at libby@dubickconsulting.com.

Look forward to seeing everyone there !


Libby Dubick
Dubick & Associates

115 East 87th Street
New York, NY,
10128212-828-3873
www.dubickconsulting.com

New Citi Chairman & Golden Parachute for Chuck Prince ...

Charles Prince, 57 ,
sould get between 31 et 94 millions de dollars of indemnities !!



Fixing Citigroup will test Rubin
By Eric Dash
Published: November 5, 2007 by Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/05/business/05citibank.php

Throughout a long, public career, Robert Rubin spanned the highest reaches of Wall Street and Washington, and succeeded wherever he went.

Now he may be facing his most difficult challenge — helping to revive Citigroup, which said Sunday that it would take an additional $8 billion to $11 billion write-down related to subprime mortgages, on top of the $5.9 billion reported in early October.

The unexpectedly large write-down, which could wipe out fourth-quarter earnings, underscores the disarray at Citigroup, the once-proud institution built by the financier Sanford I. Weill, and the deepening crisis in the broader housing and credit markets, which threaten to weaken the overall economy.

The troubles at Citigroup, "the House that Sandy Built," have become so deep that Charles Prince III resigned Sunday as chairman and chief executive. Rubin, 69, the former Treasury secretary who was recruited to the bank in 1999 as an adviser to Weill, was named chairman while the board begins a search for a chief executive.
At an emergency meeting Sunday, directors named Winfried Bischoff, the head of Citigroup Europe, as interim chief.

That Rubin was named chairman and not interim chairman suggested a degree of urgency. To attract a strong candidate, turning over both titles is probably necessary. "He wants to find somebody as chairman and CEO so he can step down," said a person briefed on the situation.

In an interview Sunday, Rubin said he was committed to the company but did not give a timeframe for remaining as chairman. He was also firm that the bank's international and internal growth strategy would not change. Bischoff, 66, acknowledged that he was a stabilizer, but he left open the possibility of a strategy change. "That is for a new CEO for the future," he said.

Citigroup's board also formed a four-member search committee, led by Richard D. Parsons of Time Warner, to begin what it called an expeditious process to identify a permanent chief. Bischoff said he was not a candidate.

At stake is the future of Citigroup as a financial supermarket, the legacy of Weill's vision and the reputation of Rubin as an executive with a Midas touch. Many investors are calling for the bank, which was already partly dismantled during Prince's tenure, to shrink to a more manageable size under its new leadership.

Their main complaint has been that Citigroup is trying to be too many things — a commercial bank, a brokerage firm, an investment bank, a credit card company. Weill promoted the idea that the different businesses would make the others stronger, by offering one-stop financial shopping to customers.

But its operations in more than 100 countries have spread management thin and made it difficult to keep tabs on risks. Its technology systems are outdated. Its cowboy culture and internal politics have proven difficult to rein in, and its sheer size makes it hard to move the profit needle.
The bank's recent troubles go far beyond a stock price that has fallen about 20 percent since Oct. 1, when the bank said that third-quarter earnings had dropped 57 percent. There have been bad trading bets at its investment bank; souring mortgage and credit card loans in its consumer division; and across the company, bloated costs and a shortage of talented managers.
Prince, who has been under pressure for months, offered his resignation after the latest earnings blow became clear. "It is my judgment that the size of these charges makes stepping down the only honorable course for me," he wrote in a memo to employees Sunday. He will leave with $105.2 million in cash and stock, on top of the $53.1 million in pay he took home in the last four years, according to data from Equilar and James F. Reda & Associates.

He becomes the second head of a major investment bank to exit because of problems related to subprime mortgages. The chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, E. Stanley O'Neal, was forced to retire last week.

Sunday Citigroup turned to two elder statesmen to guide it through this turbulent period. Bischoff, who has been with the company since it acquired the British bank Schroders in 2000, is respected and trusted by Citigroup managers. And Rubin, whose career includes a stint as co-chairman of Goldman Sachs and the run as Treasury secretary, has experience navigating crises.
Rubin has long resisted taking a more active role in Citigroup. "Initially, he said he would do it, but he was hoping there would be a co-chairman. But he stepped up and did what was necessary," said a person briefed on the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly. "There wasn't anybody else."

While Rubin has turned down offers to run Citigroup before, this time Citigroup's board may have made the case that becoming chairman is a public service obligation and not a job promotion. The chairman post also gives him the chance to repair his legacy.

To many, it is a responsibility that he should have taken on long ago. "Investors are frustrated that he is speaking to think tanks and not to them at a company that has been so severely underperforming," said Michael Mayo, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.

In his book, "In an Uncertain World," Rubin made it clear that his aim was to return to the private sector after leaving Treasury. "What I was really trying to create for myself was some type of consigliere position," he wrote.

It was just such a position that Weill offered him, with compensation of about $15 million a year as well as use of the corporate jet. He was given the title of chairman of the executive committee as well as an office next to Weill's and, later, Prince's. It was a perfect spot for Rubin: he could weigh in on big deals like Citi's merger with Banamex, the Mexican bank, charm clients and give advice to investment bankers and government officials.

Citigroup's search committee will be looking at both internal and external candidates, according to people briefed on the situation. But the fact that it needed its independent directors to meet Sunday at the bank's Park Avenue headquarters suggests that nobody was ready to step up.
Rubin said the search committee would be looking for someone "who can relate to the international dimension, deal with complicated issues, and relate to a lot of very strong and smart people."

Citigroup's problems, however, are bigger than a single leader. Virtually all of its operations suffer from years of underinvestment that will take years to make up. Its loan loss reserves have been depleted, raising questions about whether it may need to sell off assets. And Prince's long-term growth strategy, approved by the board, has had more setbacks than success.

Signs of weakness are apparent in the bank's big operating divisions. Citigroup's consumer operations have limped along without a clear focus. Its mortgage and home equity loan business has been hit hard by the housing downturn, and executives anticipate further losses.
Its credit card portfolio, which includes big private-label brands like Home Depot and Sears that cater to less credit-worthy borrowers, could also come under strain. And domestic retail banking, which pales in comparison to Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, is not big enough to make a dent on earnings.

The investment bank has problems of its own. Recent losses have raised question about its risk management practices; the uncertainty has rattled employees and clients.

Meanwhile, Citigroup executives said, bankers are anxious about the new management team and organizational structure as Vikram Pandit, who was elevated last month to a broad role as head of investment banking and alterative investments, puts his stamp on the new unit. Morale is low; so are the expected bonuses — and there is speculation that many traders will leave.

And on Wall Street there is growing belief that Prince's plans for internal and international growth are not working.

That may set the stage for Citigroup's new chief executive to revisit the old strategy.
While Rubin is publicly behind the bank's current growth plan, he has often asked provocative questions behind the scenes, a person who has worked with him said.
Rubin, for example, has been skeptical about whether Citigroup should continue in both the domestic retail and credit card business, given their slower underlying growth prospects, this person said. Prince and other business heads often pushed back.
And Gary Crittenden, who was hired as chief financial officer in March after leading successful spin-offs at American Express, brings a viewpoint that Citigroup should be managed like a financial holding company: businesses with dimmer growth prospects and lower returns should be shed.

"To a certain extent, Chuck was emotionally invested in the organizational integrity of Citigroup," this person said. Rubin and Crittenden are not. "You have got a very different set of personal frames of reference in the senior team than you had a short-time ago."
Reporting was contributed by Annie Correal, Barnaby Feder, Landon Thomas Jr. and Julia Werdigier.