Citigroup to name new U.S. consumer chief in shuffle
Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is hiring Terri Dial, credited with reviving Lloyds TSB Group’s core UK retail banking, to take over its flagging U.S. consumer business, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Dial will become Citigroup’s global head of consumer strategy, but the 58-year-old California native’s primary task will be to improve U.S. retail banking and consumer finance, the source said.
She will succeed Steven Freiberg at the helm of U.S. consumer operations. Freiberg, who used to run the bank’s North American credit card business, will take over the card business worldwide.
Lloyds (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said Dial was leaving but did not say where she was going. Lloyds shares dipped 2 percent in Friday trading in London on news of her departure. She has been with the bank since 2005.
Separately, Citigroup said it replaced Ali Hackett and Tom Tesauro, the co-heads of global equity finance and prime brokerage, according to a memo obtained by Reuters. Nick Roe, who had run the European part of that business, will replace them as head of global prime finance, reporting to hedge fund services chief Steve Bowman, who wrote the memo.
The changes are the latest under Vikram Pandit, who replaced Charles Prince as chief executive in December fast cash loans. Pandit has been carrying out a top-to-bottom review of Citigroup to find ways to boost earnings and revenue, cut costs and help rejuvenate a stock that has fallen more than 50 percent in the last year.
Citigroup is also likely to announce a shuffling of its retail and corporate banking structure, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Citigroup plans to create Asia and Europe divisions, consisting of consumer and corporate banking operations in the respective regions, the newspaper said. Ajay Banga, who runs international consumer operations, will lead the Asia unit, but it is unclear who will lead the Europe unit, it said.