Short diary just to note some timely, ironic news. This item ran Wednesday in BusinessWeek:
Vikram Pandit, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., said he would be happy to talk with Occupy Wall Street protesters, calling their sentiments “completely understandable.”
“Trust has been broken between financial institutions and the citizens of the U.S., and that is Wall Street’s job, to reach out to Main Street and rebuild that trust,” Pandit said today at a breakfast organized by Fortune magazine in New York.
If they'd like to rebuild trust and reach out to frustrated Americans, Citibank has a funny way of showing it. They just announced they were doubling their monthly maintenance fees on checking accounts from $7.50 to $15 month, among other punishing measures for struggling Americans.
Citibank certainly can't say they need the money they are freshly picking out of average American consumers' pockets. Citibank is on track to posting an estimated $2.49 billion profit this quarter. This would be Citibank's seventh profitable quarter in a row.
Certainly Pandit can't personally imagine the lot of Americans struggling to make ends meet, like most Americans. I mean CEO, 'nuff said. I am sure the most pressing personal financial concern he has is how many places won't break a hundred dollar bill these days, or take credit cards for small purchases.
He is extending an invite to them to "come up" and chat:
“I’d talk about the fact that they should hold Citi and the financial institutions accountable for practicing responsible finance,” Pandit, 54, said. “I’d be happy to talk to them any time they want to come up.”
Just don't try anything crazy,
like trying to close your Citibank account. They'll call the cops on you for that.
Update: Just for fun I looked into Pandit's compensation, and found this from the Wall Street Journal:
Pandit didn’t receive a bonus in cash or stock last year, and he worked for a relatively pedestrian $125,001 salary for 2009. In February of that year, he agreed to work for $1 a year, and he pledge to take the salary until Citigroup was profitable again.
As the Journal puts it, "the 'new normal' looks a lot like the old normal." His salary was restored to $1.75M this year.
It doesn't say what he's making in stock options, etc..