Citigroup plans to announce a writedown of as much as $24 billion and layoffs that could total as much as 24,000 due to subprime and credit-related losses, CNBC has learned.
The plans will be unveiled Tuesday by Citigroup’s new CEO, Vikram S. Pandit, after the banking giant reports fourth-quarter earnings. At the same time, Citigroup could also announce that it is cutting its dividend payment by as much as 50 percent.
Citigroup is likely to cut between 17,000 and 24,000 positions over the course of the year through a combination of layoffs, attrition and selling off businesses as part of Pandit’s cost-cutting plan, sources said. Previously, it was estimated that the layoffs could reach 20,000.
Wow. Bad times. Alarming news for those in banking, from this Bloomberg article:
Financial firms worldwide have axed about 150,000 jobs since 2007, when a spike in U.S. subprime mortgage defaults sparked the credit crunch that culminated in Lehman’s September bankruptcy, the biggest ever in the U.S.
Moot question, but how bad is the job scene in India? Any data points? I see a lot of small layoffs, nothing big; but I know a lot of banks have cut positions in India too.
