Citibank to cut jobs, head for big clients

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Ciitbank plans to cut 11,000 jobs across the world to cut down spending. EPA photo

Citibank’s recent move to cut consumer banking operations in five countries, constituting an important portion of a planned 11,000 job cuts, will not affect Turkish consumers, the local branch said in a statement.

Along with Turkey, the bank will close individual banking operations in Romania, Pakistan, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The company said it will sell or significantly scale back consumer operations in these countries.
It will cut 6,200 positions in global consumer banking, about 40 percent of which are in operations and technology, Reuters said. However, the job cuts for each country were not disclosed.

It will have 4,000 retail branches worldwide after the reductions.

The local branch will focus on corporate and commercial banking business, the statement read.
Citibank Turkey’s parent company Citigroup also owns Citibank Overseas Investment Corp., which keeps a 9.9 percent stake in Turkey’s Akbank. Turkish conglomerate Sabancı Holding controls the local lender.

The Citibank job cuts, which amount to about 4 percent of the bank’s workforce, carry the fingerprints of Citigroup’s Chairman Michael O’Neill, Reuters said yesterday.

Earlier reductions, including a 2008 announcement to cut 50,000 jobs, were linked primarily to purging the company of assets that had turned bad in the financial crisis.

More recent job cuts, including 4,500 announced at this time last year, have been aimed at shrinking Citigroup’s costs as the bank became less profitable.