Citigroup to put Grundhofer in charge of US banking operations
CITIGROUP is set to hand a key role to highly-respected banker Jerry Grundhofer as it presses on with a boardroom shake-up designed to appease government and regulators.
Grundhofer, a former head of US Bancorp, is tipped to be made chair of Citi’s audit and risk committee as well as its core US banking operation, Citibank, following pressure from the Federal Insurance Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for the bank to beef up its retail banking expertise.
He would replace John Deutch as audit committee chief and take over from Bill Rhodes as chairman of Citibank, adding to last week’s appointment of Eugene McQuade as chief executive of the core US banking business.
The likely appointment follows the bank’s decision last week to make chief financial officer (CFO) Edward “Ned” Kelly vice chairman with responsibility for disposing of assets from the group’s “bad bank”, Citi Holdings.
Chief accounting officer John Gerspach is to replace Kelly, becoming Citi’s fifth finance chief in four and a half years.
The group, led by chief executive Vikram Pandit, is planning to appoint three more new directors.