Pandit's focus at Citi: profitability, cost

Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citigroup, will focus on increasing the profitability of the banking behemoth by ensuring the right cost structure and optimal use of available capital.

In an interview with Businessweek after being elevated to the top post, he said the right businesses would be positioned for the future in financial services.

"...really we've got a lot of resources here, and it's not about needing more. It's about making sure we allocate them to the right place to create more profitability and good returns for shareholders," he told the magazine.

Responding to a query about his limited exposure to retail banking and credit card businesses, which are among the weak spots of Citigroup, Pandit said he was committed to ensuring that each of those areas are run by the best people.

"The consumer operation is not a monolith... It's a collection of great businesses... I'm committed to making sure every one of those areas has the best people running them. And I'm not saying we already don't. I'm just saying that I'm committed to making sure that's the case," he pointed out.

Pandit, 50, was the chairman and chief executive of Citi's institutional clients group that includes markets and banking and alternative investments before becoming the CEO.

When asked whether he would consider splitting the company, Pandit said he would not "get down to any options today, nor do I want to take any options off the table. What I'm saying is that this company has a lot of great businesses and is in a lot of the right areas to capture future trends."

He also asserted that he would take an objective and dispassionate look at the business encompassing all possibilities.

The banking giant has already incurred losses of nearly $7 billion due to the subprime crisis and is likely to announce another write-down of more than $10 billion.

In this scenario, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund pumped in about $7.5 billion into Citigroup. According to Pandit, the infusion of funds from Abu Dhabi is part of the bank's capital plan and a good part of the solution.

"We have a capital plan, and the Abu Dhabi piece, while it was large and a good part of the solution, was just one part of the broader aim of making sure we not only have the right capital today but have capital to go after some of the opportunities we see going forward," he said.

Replying to a query on Wall Street gripe that he does not have deep operational experience, Pandit pointed out such an experience is about different things such as understanding businesses, risk and motivating people.

Updated at 1500 hrs on 12/12/2007: Vikram Pandit, Citigroup's newly appointed chief executive officer, may cut costs and sell assets to shore up capital in the face of growing mortgage losses, according to a report on the website of Bloomberg.

"Nothing is off the table,'' Pandit, 50, said in an interview. Each of Citigroup's businesses will be scrutinised "objectively and dispassionately" as part of a "front-to-back review" of expenses and productivity, he said.

Citigroup picked Pandit, a former Morgan Stanley president who joined less than six months ago, to succeed Charles O. Prince, who was forced to step down when the biggest US bank said mortgage-related writedowns may reach $11 billion in the fourth quarter.

Citigroup, based in New York, has faced shareholder criticism for more than a year including complaints in July 2006 from the bank's largest individual investor, Saudi billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal, over escalating corporate expenses.

"The most important priority to focus on is productivity," Pandit said yesterday on a conference call with analysts. He said he'll "make sure we're looking at our cost structure."