Now here’s a cracking story from the FT’s US business editor Francesco Guerrera:
Citigroup is to break up its 10-year old “universal banking” business model by separating large parts of its troubled investment bank and US consumer finance businesses from its global commercial banking business in a dramatic attempt to ensure its survival.
People close to the situation said Vikram Pandit, Citi’s chief executive, had decided to reverse his previous backing for Citi’s “financial supermarket” structure and split the troubled group into a “bad bank” and “good bank”.
The move, whose details remain to be thrashed out, will dismantle the 1998 merger between Citicorp and Travelers that created Citigroup and mark the end of that attempt to create a financial behemoth capable of serving customers ranging from huge companies to ordinary savers.
Citi declined to comment on Tuesday.