Investors seem to like new Citigroup (C) CEO Michael Corbat, with the bank’s stock up more than 14% since he succeeded Vikram Pandit in mid-October, and seeing its rating upgraded to Buy by a whole host of analysts.
Part of that is simply because he’s not Pandit, but it’s also because of his vision of streamlining the unwieldy mess that Citi had become. David Henry today reports that we’re likely to see more moves in a similar vein:
Citigroup Inc is looking to pull out of consumer banking in more countries in an effort to lower costs and boost profits, according to two people familiar with the matter…
“There is more on the list,” said a source familiar with the situation.
The bank has been looking for months at countries, customer segments and products to cut, the source said, but declined to name any of the additional countries.
The story’s admittedly thin gruel, based on two unnamed sources and with no countries named. But it would make sense — as Henry points out, excluding the US, just three nations (Mexico, South Korea and Australia) make up half its consumer loan business, yet Citi serves consumers in about 40 countries.
With Citi’s stock up a fraction today (albeit on a down day for the market) it doesn’t seem the news is moving shares; but the fact that more paring is on its way can only be a good thing.
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