Citigroup to make more cuts; executives buy additional shares

NEW YORK: Citigroup said Friday it would make further job cuts to cope with the financial crisis, and announced that its top executives had bought up 1.3 million shares to show confidence in the banking giant.

Citi spokeswoman Shannon Bell told AFP the company would make reductions, but declined to confirm a Wall Street Journal report of 10,000 job cuts.

"We have said consistently that we will reduce expenses, including through staff reductions," she said.

"We are showing good traction on cutting our expenses; and we are selling businesses and shedding assets that don't fit our strategic profile. We will continue to carefully manage our head count levels as we re-engineer the company in line with our stated goal and market realities."

Bell also said that chief executive Vikram Pandit and other key executives had bought up a total of 1.3 million shares.

"These purchases reflect their belief in the long-term strength and growth opportunities of the company," she said.

Citigroup shares have fallen more than 24 percent this week and 70 percent since the start of the year, with the bank hit by hefty writeoffs linked to the US real estate crisis.

On Friday, Citi shares fell another 5.4 percent to 8.91 dollars.

Citigroup has already announced plans for 22,000 staff reductions and has eliminated at least 13,000 so far this year, according to company figures.

Last month, Citi reported a third-quarter loss of 2.8 billion dollars, its fourth straight quarter in the red.

The troubled bank is saddled with billions of dollars in losses tied to mortgage investments that lost value in the collapse of the US real estate market and the credit squeeze that erupted last year.