Citigroup CEO Pandit resigns

NEW YORK - Agence France—Presse

U.S. banking giant Citigroup announced yesterday that Vikram Pandit had resigned as chief executive and a member of the board of directors, effective immediately.

The board unanimously elected Michael Corbat, manager of the bank’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to succeed Pandit as CEO and a director on the board, the bank said.

The unexpected swift change at the helm of the nation’s third-largest bank came a day after Citi reported an 88 percent drop in earnings for its third quarter.

The New York-based bank has lagged other major US rivals such as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America in recovering from the 2008 Wall Street crash.

Pandit, who steered Citigroup through the crisis, said the bank had emerged as a strong institution. “Given the progress we have made in the last few years, I have concluded that now is the right time for someone else to take the helm at Citigroup,” he said in a statement.