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  3. ABN Amro is not the only big, floundering bank under fire. Across the Atlant

ABN Amro is not the only big, floundering bank under fire. Across the Atlant

游客2023-12-22  25
问题     ABN Amro is not the only big, floundering bank under fire. Across the Atlantic, disgruntled investors continue to call for a shake-up—or even a break-up—of Citigroup, the world’s biggest bank. Its share price has languished for the past five years and shareholders are restless. On February 25th it said it had hired Gary Crittenden, the well-regarded chief financial officer of American Express, to fill the same role at Citi. The person he replaces, Sallie Krawcheck, was a former research analyst with surprisingly little experience in the "financial" bits of a chief financial officer’s job. You might think shareholders would be pleased. In fact, the shares drooped.
    This was partly because of the news, disclosed late on February 23rd, that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was investigating the way Citi handled the taxes that arose from its acquisition in 2000 of Associates First Capital, a consumer-finance firm. But investors were also dismayed by the broader implications of Mr. Crittenden’s solid, but uninspiring, appointment. Chuck Prince, Citi’s boss, is staying put. And so is his strategy.   
    Mr. Prince’s predecessor, Sandy Weill, oversaw years of hard-charging growth. But Citi now seems to have lost its way. It has trailed behind rivals that dedicate themselves either to investment banking or to retail, but not to both. Its costs have ballooned. Critics snipe that, having seen a lot of its managers leave, Citi’s top brass lacks experience. Mr. Prince is doing his best to answer them. Installing Mr. Crittenden adds depth to Citi’s executive suite, and he is busy working on a cost-cutting initiative, to be unveiled this spring.
    But complaints linger about Mr. Prince’s strategy and how soon it will pay off. The chief executive has set out to transform Citi from a bank that knew how to grow only through acquisitions to one that grows "organically".
    This is something his predecessor never accomplished, perhaps because he doubted it could be done. "Sandy Weill had little faith that he could grow Citi internally," explains Dick Bove of Punk Ziegel, an investment bank, "so he consistently ripped capital out of Citi to buy growth elsewhere." As long as the buying binge went on, this worked handsomely. But managing the bits and pieces he acquired became increasingly difficult, A series of regulatory snafus prompted Mr. Weill to bring in Mr. Prince, a lawyer by background, to tidy up.
    Last month Mr. Prince ditched the name "Citigroup" for the punchier "Citi", and decided to fold the firm’s famous red umbrella once and for all. Mr. Prince wants to make Citi one cohesive company, rather than a jumbled group amassed under a single canopy.
    Rebranding a company may be easy; restructuring one is not. "Old" Citi’s shadow is proving hard to escape. It is not just the SEC’s probe into Associates, which was described in Mr. Weill’s autobiography as one of the worst purchases of his career. Rocketing expenses, Mr. Prince’s biggest problem, have their origin in a failure to invest in the technology and infrastructure needed to fuse Citi into a coherent whole. Mr. Prince is also intent on investing in Citi’s international presence, which should be its greatest strength. He aims to increase international revenues to 60% of the total, from around 45% today, through internal growth and small acquisitions.
    The latest effort is in Japan. Citi is reportedly trying to boost its small holding in Nikko Cordial, Japan’s third-biggest broking firm, which is reeling from an accounting scandal. This would give Citi a stake in Nikko’s branch network and well run asset-management business. Old Citi was forced to close its private-banking operations in Japan in 2004, after serious breaches of anti-money-laundering rules. Controlling Nikko might mark a new start for a new Citi. [br] Why did the author say that "Rebranding a company may be easy; restructuring one is not"?
选项 A、SEC will not go on probing into the mishandling of acquisition tax.
B、The firm now suffers from extra overhead expenditure.
C、Mr. Prince has to keep up with acquisitions.
D、The firm has to deal with complaints from dissatisfied investors.
答案 B
解析
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