Citigroup to eliminate 4,500 jobs

Citigroup Inc. CEO Vikram Pandit said today that the bank will cut 4,500 jobs, or about 2 percent of its workforce, starting in the current quarter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The move is part of Citigroup’s strategy to shrink costs amid weakening revenue, Bloomberg News reported.

The bank wants to reduce its expenses by 3 percent to 5 percent in the next year, the Street reported.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York, Pandit told investors that the job cuts will be completed "over the next few quarters," with Citigroup taking a charge of about $400 million in the fourth quarter tied to those cuts, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Financial firms around the world have trimmed more than 200,000 jobs this year, up from about 58,000 last year and 174,000 in 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Citigroup announced in September that would limit hiring only to “critical” jobs as regulations on minimum capital levels go into effect, Bloomberg News reported.

“Financial services faces an extremely challenging operating environment with an unprecedented combination of market uncertainty, sustained economic weakness in the developed economies and the most substantial regulatory changes we have seen in our lifetimes,” Pandit said, according to Bloomberg News. “These trends will likely significantly affect the competitive landscape in the coming years.”

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