How Citi is changing.

Vikram Pandit & Citi,

Great job on the turnaround. Citi will be a strong brand again. It is time to start thinking about the shareholders. We shareholders have suffered through great value destruction. Several shareholders have posted questions above with no answers. You certainly have the power to start restoring the value of the shares through various options posted above. We will be eagerly waiting news on improved earnings and possible share buybacks etc. The turnaround to this point has been wonderful and we appreciate your efforts.

Regards,
Mike

I am a Citi credit card customer. I have been having pleasant experience with CITI. They are truely forward looking, global, modern financial institution. I find some of the other banks very conservative. Citi will come back and rise again.

Well, this column has really got people talking, which is great. I hope Citi management listens up. I am presently dealing with a European bank which reports that it is the only bank in the world that is Triple A rated. It seems to be low-key and not an "in your face bank" like BofA, which I quit using years ago due to unbelievable errors on their part. Any bank, it seems to me, should be of service to their customers first, their stockholders and employees second, and their CEO's last - it is unbelievable how much these guys make! How many millions does it take to even buy a Lambourghini?? My concern is that they are putting this money into Swiss banks or some other place offshore and removing the cash from the American economic system - I never seem to find any financial reports on this matter. I also wonder whatever happened to those 33 Wall Street guys who ripped off the system in the late 90's??
I have investments with Citi and hope they continue to pay off. Thank you.

You have a nice swing...keep tio going!

And remember, the name of the game is EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION!!!

Obviously I'm unhappy with issuing such an exorbitant amount of stock to the government, but, if it's absolutely neccessary to do a reverse stock split, I desparately hope that it won't be worse than 2 for 1. We absolutely must have a greater upside potential to recover our stock losses. A stockholder.

As a shareholder and a private business owner I would like to offer the following observations.
Many publicly owned companies operate in a manner completely antithetical to the relationship of compensation of the owners of the business and the managers of the business, Citi is one of them.
When it comes to this issue lessons can be learned from the preeminent investor of our times Warren Buffet.
Citi can go further by allowing a direct shareholder vote on compensation of the top management, including all directors. The fortune of top management must be directly related to the compensation of the owners of Citi.
The rush to repay TARP at an extremely low price was another slap in the face of Citi owners by their own employees, concerned about their own compensation only.
Sooner or latter investors will start hiring employees who work for them and this may come by legislation or a revolt by the shareholders.

my only concern is that with Citi being one of the largest global banks that management will take it upon themselves to police what they do and not leave investors hanging in hopes of future bailouts by America!

I was curious if you actually accept real comments or is everything on this blog fake?

A traditional stock buy back program may not be the right short term move for the company to implement to increase shareholder value. A strong cash position may better for shareholder value in the short term. the company establish a fund ( sinking bond fund may be and restricted) for the repurchase of common shares once it achieves certain milestones. This may offset some of the negative perception associated with the increase in outstanding shares and the compensation program (grants of more shares).

It may be more important here to change the image of Citiholdings. The company has expressed this entity as a function without reasonable limits which is hampering its turnaround. The asset pool in this unit does not have to go to "0" for the maximization of the whole system. And the problem really should be worked from both directions to find the maximum for Citicorp as a function of the system. It may only need to be reduced to $400 billion not $0 for the maximum outcome.