Report says Citigroup to name U.S. consumer chief

Report says Citigroup to name U.S. consumer chief
Reuters - 25 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup , the largest U.S. bank, plans to hire an outsider to take over its flagging U.S. consumer business, and will split up most units geographically rather than by business line, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday.

Terri Dial, who runs Lloyds TSB Group's U.K. retail banking business, will replace Steven Freiberg at the helm of U.S. consumer operations, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Dial will become global head of consumer strategy, but the 58-year-old California native's primary task will be to improve U.S. retail banking and consumer finance, the newspaper said. Freiberg, who used to run the bank's North American credit card business, would take over the card business worldwide.

The changes are the latest under Vikram Pandit, who replaced Charles Prince as chief executive in December and has been doing a top-to-bottom review of Citigroup's business to find ways to boost profit and revenue while cutting costs.

A shuffling of Citigroup's structure is likely to be announced next week, the newspaper said. Citigroup plans to create Asia and Europe divisions, consisting of its consumer and corporate banking operations in the respective regions, the newspaper said.

Ajay Banga, who runs international consumer operations, would lead the Asia unit, but it is unclear who would lead the Europe unit, it said.

More than 6,000 job cuts have been announced by Citigroup this year, and more are widely expected, including in the investment bank.

Separately, Citigroup replaced Ali Hackett and Tom Tesauro, the co-heads of global equity finance and prime brokerage, according to a memo on The New York Times' DealBook blog. Nick Roe, who has been running the European part of that business, will replace them, the memo said.

Citigroup spokesmen Jonathan Woodier in London and Richard Tesvich in Hong Kong declined comment, while several other spokespeople did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Another spokesman confirmed the memo's contents in a published report.

The bank lost $9.83 billion (4.89 billion pounds) in the fourth quarter, hurt by $18.1 billion of write-downs and credit losses tied to subprime mortgages. Many analysts expect a first-quarter loss as well.

Citigroup shares closed Thursday at $21.79. They closed last March 28 at $50.96.