New York – Citigroup Inc. expects to have completed its corporate-cost review by mid-April, company officials said Monday, as published reports suggested the nation’s largest bank was considering cutting about 15,000 jobs.
The Wall Street Journal said the job cuts – which would amount to about 5 percent of Citigroup’s worldwide workforce – were part of the New York- based bank’s restructuring plan, which is aimed at improving the bank’s financial performance.
Chairman and chief executive Charles Prince has come under heavy criticism from investors because Citigroup’s expenses have been growing faster than its revenue, reducing profits.
Prince, who is on a trip to India, told reporters in New Delhi that he would not comment on The Journal’s report.
“We are going to announce the results of our strategic structural review on or before our earnings announcement on April 16,” he said.
The review is being led by chief operating officer Robert Druskin. The newspaper said Druskin would report his recommendations internally by the end of the week.
The newspaper said the cuts could result in a charge of more than $1 billion against earnings.
Analysts at Standard & Poor’s Equity Research said the savings from the job-cutting “may not be meaningful to near-term operating results if the cuts come as a result of attrition.”
The Journal reported Monday that one possibility that Citigroup is considering is not replacing some of the 30,000 to 50,000 Citigroup employees who leave the company each year.
The paper said the cuts could slice through Citigroup’s global banking empire. It employs about 327,000 people worldwide.
In January, Citigroup said it earned $5.13 billion, or $1.03 a share, in the October-December period, down 26 percent from $6.93 billion, or $1.37 a share, a year earlier when it had a $2 billion gain on the sale of Citi’s asset-management business to Legg Mason Inc.
