Citigroup to slash 4500 employees worldwide

New York, Dec 7: US bank Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit has announced that it is planning to lay off 4,500 employees worldwide in the coming months to reduce costs.

The US-based financial services firm Citigroup will take a charge of about $400m in the fourth quarter of 2011 for severance and other expenses related to current job lay off. Meanwhile, the latest cut will represent about 2% of its global workforce of 267,000.

"Financial services face 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. “These trends will significantly affect the competitive landscape in the coming years," he added.

Most of the workforce will be cut from investment banking operation and from some segments of citi business. Citigroup has reported a net income of $3.77bn, up 74%, for the third quarter of 2011, compared to $2.16bn for the same period in 2010.

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