Citigroup

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Citigroup Center building, New York, N.Y., U.S.

Johan Burati

Citigroup, American financial services corporation formed in 1998 from the merger of Citicorp (itself a holding company incorporated in 1967) and Travelers Group, Inc. Its headquarters are in New York City.

Citigroup’s origins date to the early 19th century. In 1811 the U.S. Congress refused to renew the charter of the First Bank of the United States—the country’s central bank, which had branches in cities such as New York. Thus, on June 16, 1812, some of the First Bank’s New York shareholders and other investors secured state incorporation of the City Bank of New York, which was later established in the branch banking rooms of the old First Bank. The bank grew as New York City became the nation’s commercial and financial capital, and in 1865 it was chartered under the National Bank Act and renamed the National City Bank of New York. In 1897 it became the first large American bank to open a foreign department and, in 1915, became America’s leading international bank upon the purchase of International Banking Corporation (founded 1902), which had 21 overseas offices in 13 countries and territories.

Other mergers and acquisitions in the United States and overseas expanded the bank. Notably, in 1931 it acquired the Bank of America, N.A. (another descendant of the First Bank of the United States and no relation to the former California-based bank founded by Amadeo Peter Giannini). In 1955 it merged with the First National Bank of the City of New York (founded 1863). Upon the latter merger, the consolidated company took the name of First National City Bank of New York.

In 1967 the bank was reorganized under a holding company—the assets of which included the First National City Bank of New York and a finance company, a traveler’s check company, and other related financial operations. The holding company was named Citicorp in 1974, and the banking business took the name Citibank in 1976. In the late 1970s Citicorp pioneered the installation of a network of automated teller machines throughout its branch offices. The company secured an important share of the Americancredit card business by purchasing Carte Blanche Corporation in 1978 and Diners Club, Inc., in 1981. In 1982 and 1983 Citicorp made three major acquisitions—Fidelity Savings and Loan Association of San Francisco, First Federal Savings and Loan of Chicago, and New Biscayne Savings and Loan Association of Florida—which increased its assets by more than $8.5 billion and expanded its interstate banking operations significantly.

By the late 20th century, Citicorp had become the largest American bank and one of the largest financial companies in the world, with about 3,000 branch offices worldwide. Its $70 billion merger with Travelers Group included Salomon Smith Barney Inc., a leading U.S. investment bank and brokerage firm. In 2001 Citigroup acquired European American Bank from Dutch bank ABN AMRO. In 2002 Citigroup retained the red “umbrella” logo that had originated with Travelers Insurance but spun off the property and casualty businesses, thereby creating a separate company, Travelers Property Casualty Corp.

In 2008 Citigroup suffered billions of dollars in losses during the subprime mortgage crisis, a severe contraction of liquidity in credit markets worldwide brought about by the steep devaluation of mortgage-backed securities. In October the U.S. government invested $25 billion in Citigroup under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, a law designed to prevent the crisis from causing further damage to the U.S. financial system. In November the government announced that it had negotiated a second rescue package with Citigroup officials, in which it would guarantee losses on more than $300 billion in troubled assets and make an additional $20 billion investment in the bank. In January 2009 Citigroup announced plans to split the firm into two new companies, Citicorp and Citi Holdings. The former was slated to handle Citigroup’s traditional banking work while the latter would manage its riskiest investment assets.