CitiBank to lay off and fire 10.000 workers

Citibank is a major international bank, founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York. Citibank is now the consumer and corporate banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup, one of the largest companies in the world. As of March 2007, it is the largest bank in the United States by holdings

Citibank has operations in more than 100 countries and territories around the world. More than half of its 1,400 offices are in the United States, mostly in the New York City, Chicago, Miami, and Washington DC metropolitan areas, as well as in California.

Citigroup (C) plans to lay off and fire at least 10,000 people starting this week and to raise interest rates on millions of its credit-card customers, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Executives have told officials to slash their compensation budgets by 25%, the Journal said.

In addition, Citibank is going to announce steep increases in the credit card interest rates and I’m sure we’ll also see higher credit card fees as well. The goal will be to place more “innocent” land mines in front of consumers that they can step on to increase revenue for Citibank.

Consumers can opt out of the rate increase, the Journal said, and will be able to use their credit cards until their expiration. This follows a similar move by American Express
(AXP).

The Journal also mentioned that Citigroup called “completely erroneous” its report that the firm was considering replacing Sir Win Bischoff as chairman, but it said it stood by the article and that people familiar with the matter said the move was still being considered.