Customers Protect Citi

Citigroup's deposit base and loan book are growing,Gary Crittenden pointed out.There will be continuous re-engineering of the company,and that's healthy for it.The deal could be a template for other banks.We brought our assets down by 300 billion dollars.Our legacy assets are exposed to the consumer,but our ex-U.S. customers are mostly in the Citigold category,which should mute the impact of the financial crisis,Gary Crittenden maintained.

CFO on the Rescue

Citigroup's Chief Financial Officer,Gary Crittenden,says the rescue package is not a nationalization.Citi's Tier One ratio is among the highest in the industry.The rescue package does not require Citi to increase lending or change strategy.We haven't won or lost,Mr.Crittenden said,just increased confidence that Citi can do what it has to do in this environment.The talks with the government were highly collaborative.We got to a place that was good for the government,the taxpayer and Citigroup.Today we have the strongest capital ratio of any large bank in the financial services industry.We worked hard to get a package that should have some success,the CFO noted.