Citigroup CEO resigns; interim named
Updated: 2007-11-05 09:41
NEW YORK -- Citigroup Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince, beset by the company's billions of dollars in losses from investing in bad debt, resigned Sunday and is being replaced as chairman by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
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The nation's largest banking company announced Prince's widely expected departure in a statement following an emergency meeting of its board. Citi also said Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe and a Member of the Citi management and operating committees, would serve as interim CEO. Rubin, a former co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., has served as the chair of Citi's executive committee, and it was also expected he would take a greater role in leading the company.
In a separate statement, Citi, which took a hit of $6.5 billion from asset writedowns and other credit-related losses in the third quarter, said it would take an additional $8 billion to $11 billion in writedowns.
"It was the honorable course, given the losses we are now announcing," Rubin said of Prince's resignation in an interview with The Associated Press.
Prince joined former Merrill Lynch & Co. CEO Stan O'Neal, who resigned from the investment bank last month, as the highest-profile casualties of the debt crisis that has cost billions at other financial institutions as well.
Prince, 57, became chief executive of Citigroup in October 2003. Many shareholders criticized him openly for much of his tenure, as Citigroup's stock lagged its peers while Prince executed what was called an umbrella model of corporate organization, with several separate lines of business. Shares closed Friday at $37.73, about 20 percent below where they were when Prince became CEO.
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