Citi adds regional heads to capital markets group
August 23rd, 2008 | by admin |(Adds detail on changes, background on Citi)
NEW YORK, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) isreorganizing its capital markets group to add regionalmanagers, to ensure businesses better serve clients and managerisk better, according to an internal memo.
The bank named four regional heads of markets, who willform a cohesive strategy for all products in their markets.
The bank also named a series of global product heads, whowill be responsible for sales and trading for their productsworldwide.
The changed structure should ensure that there are managerswith both regional and product expertise looking afterbusinesses, allowing Citi to better serve clients and improveoverall risk management, the memo, which was obtained byReuters, said.
Better risk management is particularly important afterCitigroup has racked up more than $57 billion of write-downs and credit losses over the last four quarters, much of whichcome from bad assets on its trading books.
John Havens, head of the institutional clients group, hasbeen overhauling Citigroup’s commercial and investment bankingactivities for months as he tries to cut costs and improveperformance.
The new capital markets group, known in Citi as its globalmarkets business, will be co-headed by James Forese and PacoYbarra. Forese previously was the sole head.
The group previously had three global product lines: fixedincome, which included commodities and currencies; equities;and municipal securities.
