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Saying it needs to "further reduce expenses and improve efficiency across the company," Citigroup announced today that it is eliminating about 11,000 jobs รข€" 4 percent of its global workforce.
The banking giant also said it is expects to take "pre-tax charges of approximately $1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 and approximately $100 million of related charges in the first half of 2013."
Bloomberg News points out that new Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat "is adding to a January cost-cutting announcement by predecessor Vikram Pandit, who had previously sought to boost some of the businesses targeted today. The new CEO is responding to an industrywide slump in trading and investment banking, stiffer capital requirements and Europe's debt crisis. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and UBS AG are among rivals focused on reducing costs."
The New York Times' DealBook blog says that "under the reduction, 1,900 jobs will be eliminated in the institutional clients division. Another 6,200 positions will be removed from the bank's consumer banking business, along with 2,600 jobs in the operations and technology group."
Forbes calls this "the Citigroup bloodbath" and says that since "on Wall Street and around the world big banks are firing workers ... Citigroup is joining the club."
