Citigroup

Citigroup, based in New York City, is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. It has more than 5,000 bank branches and finance offices in the U.S., Canada, and 100 other countries. Citigroup was initially founded as the City Bank of New York June 16, 1812, later renamed CitiBank. Citigroup was formed on October 9, 1998, following the $140 billion merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group to create the world's largest financial services organization. It is the first bank in the U.S. that had more than $1 trillion in assets. It has a large number of subsidiaries and offers services such as credit cards, investment banking, brokerage, and many other retail and corporate financial services. In 2006, it had sales of $146.5 billion and profits of $21.5 billion. In 2011, Citigroup reported $78,353,000,000 in total revenue.

Citi has some 200 million customer accounts. Besides the Citi brand, it also has Primerica Financial Services and Diners Club credit cards.

During the financial crisis Citigroup received bailout funds and guarantees totaling $356 billion from the U.S. government.

Ties to Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt"
The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem."

This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's investigation of Pete Peterson's Campaign to "Fix the Debt." Please visit our main SourceWatch page on Fix the Debt.

Plutonomy memos
The word "plutonomy" was coined by Ajay Kapur, a global strategist at Citigroup, in 2005. The memos discussed a new era of economic growth that is powered and consumed by the very wealthy.

The memos were highlighted in Michael Moore's documentary movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story."

Quotes from the Memos: “The world is dividing into two blocs -- the plutonomies, where economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few, and the rest. Plutonomies have occurred before in sixteenth century Spain, in seventeenth century Holland, the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties in the U.S.”

"Disruptive technology-driven productivity gains, creative financial innovation, capitalist- friendly cooperative governments, an international dimension of immigrants and overseas conquests invigorating wealth creation, the rule of law, and patenting inventions. Often these wealth waves involve great complexity, exploited best by the rich and educated of the time."

“We project that the plutonomies (the U.S., UK, and Canada) will likely see even more income inequality, disproportionately feeding off a further rise in the profit share in their economies, capitalist-friendly governments, more technology-driven productivity, and globalization.”

“Since we think the plutonomy is here, is going to get stronger…” “It is a good time to switch out of stocks that sell to the masses and back to the plutonomy basket.”

Sourcewatch resources on plutonomy

 * Citigroup Plutonomy Report, Part 1, Oct 16, 2005.
 * Citigroup Plutonomy Report, Part 2, March 5, 2006.

Financial crisis and the bailout
On October 13, 2008, Citigroup was one of a group of nine banks that were told by the government they had to accept "bailout" funds. Citigroup received an initial $25 billion from this meeting, with the government receiving preferred shares on which Citigroup must pay 5% interest for five years and then 9%.

Travelers merger
In 1998 Citibank merged with Travelers Group. The merger violated the Bank Holding Company Act (BHCA), but Citibank was given a two-year forbearance that was based on an assumption that they would be able to force a change in the law. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed in November 1999, repealing the BHCA and portions of the Glass-Steagall Act, allowing banks, brokerages, and insurance companies to merge, thus making the Citigroup/Traveler Group merger legal.

Top Citigroup officials were allowed to review and approve drafts of the legislation before it was formally introduced.

After resigning as Treasury Secretary and while secretly in negotiations to head Citigroup, Robert Rubin helped broker the final deal to pass the bill.

On November 6, 2009, John S. Reed, the former head of Citigroup who helped engineer the company's merger with Travelers Group, apologized and said banks that big should be divided into separate parts. “I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened.”

Bailouts
In addition to an initial October, 2008 bailout of $25 billion, another $25 billion was given to the company along with guarantees to cover $306 billion of their assets on November 23, 2008.

Use of bailout funds
Though the bailout funds were supposed to assist the recovery of the American economy, Citibank loaned $8 billion to Dubai six weeks after receiving the funds.

Coal investments
In May 2007, Citi announced a $50 billion initiative over the next 10 years to address global climate change, consisting of "investment and financing of alternative energy, clean technology, and other carbon-emission reduction activities." In reality, this amount represents less than one percent of Citi's $2.2 trillion assets, and the bank continues to be the largest financier of the coal industry, one of the leading causes of climate change.

In November 2011, Citi was listed as the number 2 top global financier of coal-fired power plants in a report complied by various environmental groups entitled, Bankrolling Climate Change: A Look into the Portfolios of the World's Largest Banks. The report noted that Citi spent $9,587 million euros on coal plants around the world since 2005.

Citi is a leading investor in the coal sector and has lent billions of dollars to companies seeking to build new coal-fired power plants. The company's clients include the major players in the power and utility industry: American Electric Power, CONSOL Energy, Dominion, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Florida Power & Light, Luminant, MidAmerican Energy, NRG Energy, Ohio Edison Electric (FirstEnergy), Peabody Energy, Southern Company, Xcel Energy, and many others. Citi is the top underwriter of American Electric Power, the country's largest electric generator and single largest producer of greenhouse gases in the U.S.; in 2006 alone, Citi financed $3 billion for AEP. Citi is also Dynegy's top underwriter and has helped finance over $5 billion for the company New coal plants being funded by Citi include:


 * Hempstead (AR)
 * Plum Point Energy Station (AR)
 * Comanche Generating Station Unit 3 (CO)
 * Indian River (DE)
 * Stanton Energy Center (FL)
 * Glades (FL)
 * Longleaf (GA)
 * Council Bluffs Energy Center Unit 4 (IA)
 * Sutherland Generating Station Unit 4 (IA)
 * LS Power Elk Run Energy Station (IA)
 * Prairie State Energy Campus (IL)
 * Edwardsport Plant (IN)
 * Thoroughbred Generating Station ((KY)
 * Big Cajun II Unit 4 (LA)
 * Little Gypsy Repowering (LA)
 * Midland Power Plant (MI)
 * Cliffside Plant (NC)
 * Desert Rock (NM)
 * Mustang Energy Project (NM)
 * Toquop (NV)
 * White Pine Energy Station (NV)
 * Huntley Generating Station (NY)
 * Great Bend IGCC (OH)
 * Sallisaw Project (OK)
 * Red Rock Generating Facility (OK)
 * Cross Generating Station Unit 3 (SC)
 * Cross Generating Station Unit 4 (SC)
 * Pee Dee Generating Facility (SC)
 * Marion City Project (SC)
 * Sandy Creek Plant (TX)
 * Oak Grove Plant (TX)
 * Limestone 3 (TX)
 * Big Brown 3 (TX)
 * Lake Creek 3 (TX)
 * Martin Lake 4 (TX)
 * Monticello 4 (TX)
 * Morgan Creek 3 & 4 (TX)
 * Morgan Creek 7 (TX)
 * Tradinghouse 3 & 4 (TX)
 * Valley 4 (TX)
 * Hunter 4 (UT)
 * Intermountain Power Project Unit 3 (UT)
 * Wise County Plant (VA)
 * LS Power Sussex proposal (VA)
 * Nelson Dewey Generating Facility (WI)
 * Mountaineer (WV)
 * Jim Bridger Unit 5 (WY)

In 2007, Citi worked with Dow Chemical Co., The AES Corp., and Suncor Energy, Inc. to put together a $100 million investment for GreatPoint Energy, a coal gasification company based in Cambridge, MA. The investment was used to create a pilot gasification plant called the Mayflower Clean Energy Center, located at Dominion's Brayton Point station in Somerset, Massachusetts. This was the largest "green tech" investment of 2007, and "one of the industry's biggest venture capital rounds ever."

Mountaintop removal
Citi has also financed billions of dollars to companies that practice mountaintop removal coal mining, a technique that blasts off the tops of mountains to reach the underlying coal deposits. The bank's clients include Alpha Natural Resources, which operates 27 surface mines in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia; Arch Coal, which is the 2nd largest mining company in the nation and operates mines in Colorado, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming; Massey Energy, which is being sued by the EPA for violating the Clean Water Act over 4500 times and faces up to $2.4 billion in fines; and Foundation Coal, the 4th largest coal mining company in the U.S.

A 2011 report by Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club, "Policy and Practice: 2011 Report Card on Banks and Mountaintop Removal" listed PNC, Citi, and UBS as the top three financiers of mountaintop removal coal mining. The report card reviewed the financing practices of ten banks that had have provided more than $2.5 billion (in 16 loans and bond underwriting deals) to mountaintop removal companies since January 2010, according to the report.

Of the worst-performing banks, the report wrote of Citibank that, despite announcing a public policy to limit the financing of MTR extraction in 2009, the bank had since doubled its exposure to the sector.

Nov. 5, 2007: Rainforest Action Network blockade of D.C. Citibank branch
On November 5, 2007, activists from Rainforest Action Network, Coal River Mountain Watch, and the Student Environmental Action Coalition joined hundreds of student activists in blockading Citibank branch in Washington, D.C., in protest of Citibank's ongoing funding of new coal power plant development. RAN activists performed a "die-in" and delivered a wheelbarrow full of coal to the bank's managers. Police shut the branch down for the day, and no arrests were made.



Nov. 15, 2007: Rainforest Action Network day of action against coal finance
On November 15, 2007, Rainforest Action Network activists - acting together with allies from Coal River Mountain Watch, Appalachian Voices, Rising Tide North America, Mountain Justice Summer, Student Environmental Action Coalition, and Energy Justice Network - staged dozens of actions against Citibank and Bank of America branches in cities across the county, in protest of those two companies' refusal to stop funding new coal power plant development and coal mountaintop removal mining. In San Francisco, RAN activists attached caution tape - reading "Global Warming Crime Scene" - to dozens of Bank of America and Citibank ATMs, and held "cough-ins" in several branches. Similar ATM closure actions were held in New York City, Davis (CA), Los Angeles, Portland (OR), and St. Petersburg (FL), while protests against the two companies were held in numerous other cities.



April 1, 2008: Rainforest Action Network blockade of NYC Citibank office
On April 1, 2008, as part of the Fossil Fools International Day of Action, 25 "billionaires for coal" blockaded Citibank's Upper West Side headquarters in New York City. Two people chained themselves to the door, while others - dressed in tuxedos and top hats - drew attention to Citi's funding of new coal power plant development and mountaintop removal mining. Police cut through the chains locking the two billionaires to Citibank's door, and arrested them.

November 14, 2008: Rising Tide Boston helps banks market “Green Coal”
Rising Tide Boston set up “Green Coal” marketing tables outside branches of Bank of America and Citibank to highlight these banks high-risk investments in coal power and mining. Emulating the coal industry’s marketing pitch of “clean coal”, activists handed out samples of “green coal” while informing fellow citizens not to expect “green coal” to be clean, safe, or affordable. Rising Tide Boston held this event as part of the Day of Action Against Coal Finance, joining over 50 cities across the country to protest Citi and Bank of America’s investments in the coal industry.

Campaign contributions
2010 1st Quarter Campaign Contributions: $313,500 (52% to Democrats, 48% to Republicans)

Decade-long campaign contribution total (1998-2008): $19,778,382

2008 Campaign Contribution (Top 20) Total: $4,270,678

2008 Top Recipients: 1. Barack Obama (D) $543,430 2. Hillary Clinton (D) $423,417 3. John McCain (R) $301,301 4. Mitt Romney (R) $168,550 5. Chris Dodd (D) $157,244

Citigroup gave $594,100 to federal candidates in the 2006 election through its political action committee - 31% to Democrats and 68% to Republicans.

Lobbying
Citigroup has more lobbyists than any other financial company. The company was listed as a client by 46 of the 1,537 lobbyists filing to lobby on Financial Reform efforts. The totals for the financial industry outnumber by a ratio of 25 to 1 number who registered to represent consumer groups, unions and other proponents of tougher regulations.

2009 Lobbying Expenditure: $5,560,000

Decade-long lobbying expenditure total (1998-2008): $88,460,000

2008 Lobbying Expenditure (Top 12) Total: $7,875,000

2008 Top Lobbying Expenditure Recipients: 1. Citigroup Management Corp $5,520,000 2. Avenue Solutions $100,000 3. Barnett, Sivon & Natter $260,000 4. Capitol Hill Strategies $240,000 5. Capitol Tax Partners $200,000 The company spent $6,960,000 for lobbying in 2006. In-house lobbyists along with 11 lobbying firms were used including Ernst & Young, Federalist Group, Capitol Tax Partners, and Angus & Nickerson.

Executive Management
As of February, 2013:
 * Michael L. Corbat, CEO
 * Michael E. O'Neill, Chairman
 * John C. Gerspach, CFO
 * Michael Helfer, Vice Chairman
 * Mark Mason, CEO of Citi Holdings
 * William J. Mills, CEO, North America
 * Cece Stewart, President, U.S. Consumer & Commercial Banking
 * Manuel Medina-Mora, Co-President, Citi Chief Executive Officer, Global Consumer Banking Chairman, Mexico
 * James A. Forese, Co-President, Citi Chief Executive Office, Institutional Clients Group
 * Edward Skyler, Executive Vice President, Global Public Affairs
 * Paco Ybarra, Head of Global Markets Institutional Clients Group
 * Kevin Thurm, Chief Compliance Officer
 * Rohan Weerasinghe, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary
 * Sanjiv Das, President & CEO of CitiMortgage
 * Bradford Hu, Chief Risk Officer

Key former executives and 2008 pay

 * Vikram S. Pandit, Chief Exec. Officer, $985,000
 * James Forese, Head of Global Capital Markets, Co-Chairman of Investment Banking Unit, Co-Chief Exec. Officer of Investment Banking Unit, $5,490,000
 * Stephen R. Volk, Vice Chairman, $4,100,000
 * William McNamee, Presisdent

Board of Directors

 * Emeritus Chair - Sanford I. Weill
 * Former Chair (2007-9) - Winfried Bischoff


 * Michael L. Corbat, CEO
 * Franz B. Humer, Chairman of Roche Holding Ltd.
 * Robert L. Joss, Ph.D., Dean and Philip H. Knight Professor of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University
 * Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Dow Chemical Company
 * Anne Mulcahy, Chairman, Xerox Corporation
 * Michael E. O'Neill, Former Chairman and CEO, Bank of Hawaii Corporation
 * Lawrence R. Ricciardi, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Advisor to the Chairman, Retired, IBM Corporation
 * Judith Rodin, President, Rockefeller Foundation
 * Robert L. Ryan, Chief Financial Officer, Retired, Medtronic Inc.
 * Anthony M. Santomero, Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
 * Joan Spero, Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
 * Diana L. Taylor, Managing Director, Wolfensohn Capital Partners
 * William S. Thompson, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, Retired, Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO)
 * Ernesto Zedillo, Director, Center for the Study of Globalization & Professor of International Economics & Politics, Yale University

Former Board Members

 * Richard D. Parsons, former Chairman, Citigroup, former Chairman and CEO of Time Warner
 * C. Michael Armstrong, former Chairman - Board of Trustees, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Health System Corporation and Hospital
 * Alain J.P. Belda, Chairman, Alcoa Inc.
 * Timothy C. Collins, Chief Executive Officer of Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C.
 * John M. Deutch, Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former Director of CIA
 * Jerry A. Grundhofer, Chairman Emeritus, U.S. Bancorp
 * Vikram Pandit, former Chief Executive Officer, Citi

Earnings and bonuses
According to a report by the Attorney General of New York State Citigroup paid $5.33 billion in bonuses to executives and employees while losing $27.7 billion after being a recipient of TARP bailout funds of $45 billion.

Breakdown of Citigroup 2008 bonuses from the Attorney General's report ;
 * Top four recipients received a combined $43.66 million.
 * The next four received: $37.47 million.
 * The next six received: $49.81 million.
 * Number of individuals that received more than $10 million: 3
 * Number that received more than $8 million: 13
 * Number that received more than $5 million: 44
 * Number that received more than $4 million: 69
 * Number that received more than $3 million: 124
 * Number that received more than $2 million: 176
 * Number that received at least $1 million: 738

Former CEO Charles Prince wins worst "Scrooge" of 2008 award
In December 2008, Co-Op America announced its list of the worst corporate "Scrooges" of 2008, awarded to "the CEOs who exhibited the worst kinds of unbridled greed and a lack of compassion or concern for others over the last year." Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, was on the list because of his role in the U.S.'s recent financial crisis. Analysts have cited Prince's mistakes in pursuing risky business strategies and lobbying for looser regulations of the banking industry as contributing to the economic downturn. The Scrooge award also mentions that is one of the top financers of coal mining and coal-fired power plants.

Contact details
399 Park Avenue New York, NY 10043 Phone: 212-559-1000 Fax: 212-793-3946 Web: http://www.citigroup.com

Featured SourceWatch Articles on Fix the Debt

 * Fix the Debt Portal Page
 * Fix the Debt's Leadership
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 * Fix the Debt's State Chapters
 * Fix the Debt's Lobbyists
 * Fix the Debt's Parent Group
 * Fix the Debt's Corporations
 * Pete Peterson
 * Peter G. Peterson Foundation
 * America Speaks
 * Simpson-Bowles Commission
 * Erskine Bowles
 * Alan Simpson
 * Social Security
 * Medicare
 * Medicaid
 * Robert Joss

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Citigroup Plutonomy Report, Part 1, Oct 16, 2005.
 * Citigroup Plutonomy Report, Part 2, March 5, 2006.

External resources

 * Sold Out - How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America, Consumer Education Foundation, March, 2009.

External articles

 * Big Bank Profile: Citigroup, Service Employees International Union, accessed October 2009.
 * Jonathan D. Salant and Lizzie O’Leary, Citigroup Taxpayer Ownership Doesn’t Prevent Lobbying, Bloomberg, October 23, 2009.