Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) CEO Vikram Pandit made the long overdue announcement that he wants to make the bank βfitβ by trimming $400 billion in assets. Currently, Citi reigns as the world's largest bank by assets with more than $2.1 trillion on the books compared to
Bank of America Corp.'s (NYSE: BAC) $1.74 trillion.
With Citi's shares losing more than half their value over the past year, it is about time that management starts paying attention to who's biggest by market capitalization β not assets on the books. With a market capitalization of about $123 billion, Citi is dwarfed by both Bank of America, at more than $164 billion, and
J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), at nearly $158 billion.
In all fairness, current CEO Pandit isn't to blame for Citi's bloated state. When he took over this last December, he inherited the boneheaded legacies of CEOs Sanford Weill and Charles Prince. Pandit has already begun cutting the fat by getting rid of CitiCapital and its $13 billion in assets, selling office buildings, and unloading more than $12 billion of leveraged loans.
Despite these efforts, the total assets sold so far amount to not even $30 billion β to get to $400 billion, he has a long way to go.
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