Information Madness

Vikram Pandit of Citigroup has been made to lie low by the media as he has been busy fixing and re-aligning the group’s weakening businesses. For the past two and a half years, he has been busy avoiding the critics of the Citibank in Washington, D.C.

Now, after declaring the second quarter results for this year and reporting a 24% profit increase, Citigroup’s Chief Executive Officer is coming out aggressive with the media on his expansion scheme. Of late, the Citigroup has been busy employing several investment bankers, crafting commercials and making blueprints to open up hundreds of branches globally, including a plan for adding more than two hundred branches in all major cities across the United States.

The bank is still in the midst of overhauling its technological systems which is famous globally as the `Project Rainbow’. The bank is spending over a billion dollars annually to maintain its global transaction services franchise. On this account, the investors may have to wait a little longer than a year for a pay off.

After taking a lot of heat from some Wall Street analysts, Citigroup executives are of a view that they need to loosen their stringent budgets a little after cutting back on investment spending for several years to make up the lost ground. They seem to be in the investment mood now. Mr. Vikram Pandit’s next big challenge is to keep a close control on expenses while building his global banking franchise. Though he has been successful in improving risk management, his efforts have not boosted Citi’s share value.