Citigroup Admits to $100 Million Losses on 15 Days; Can Leadership Spark a Turnaround?

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace )-- Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) shocked Wall Street after disclosing that daily losses of more than $100 million had occurred on 15 separate occasions in its investment bank in 2007.

Citigroup kept mum on the details, but the news sheds further insight into the actual extent of the impact of the mortgage crisis and last year’s $20 billion in write-downs.

James D Wolfensohn, Senior Advisor of Citigroup, commented on Sunday about the industry setbacks: “I think that the managements of many of the financial institutions simply didn’t have a clue of what was going on.”

One of the biggest victims of the subprime crisis, Citigroup is clearly in need of a turnaround plan. As Senior Advisor, can Wolfensohn be the one to help new CEO Vikram Pandit strategize a way to bring earnings back up?

Using an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map as a tool for easily analyzing Wolfensohn’s industry experience and corporate connections, NewsVisual predicts that while the next year will continue to be tough for Citigroup, Wolfensohn may prove to be a valuable asset as an advisor during the bank’s troubled times.

As illustrated in this Knowledge Map, Wolfensohn has a vast amount of leadership experience that extends into the corporate, non-profit and government sectors. He served two terms as the President of the World Bank between 1995 and 2005. Wolfensohn has also held Senior Executive positions with Darling & Co, J Henry Schroders Banking Corp and James D Wolfensohn Inc, to name a few.

Other noteworthy connections link Wolfensohn to numerous non-corporate entities through having served in leadership positions, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Business Council for Sustainable Development, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. The Knowledge Map also illustrates his past university connections to Harvard Business School and the University of Sydney.

With the pressure mounting to spark positive results, Citigroup will most certainly take advantage of Wolfensohn’s experience and connections in its efforts to strategize a turnaround.

Readers, what are your reactions to Citigroup’s latest announcement of $100 million in losses on 15 separate days?

Click here or copy this link into your Internet Explorer for an interactive version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=99dd99dc-adeb-40d4-9567-7444dcd48f28

See article by David Enrich and David Reilly in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Comments

[Anon]

This is the epitome of selective reporting in journalism. Buried in the same article is that Citi's traders made more than $100 million in a single day 55 times! 55! Thats almost 4 times as many days as they lost $100 million. I'd take that any day. This article is written to continue the bad publicity Citi has experienced of late with little attention being paid to actual facts.

[Anon]

This is the epitome of selective reporting in journalism. Buried in the same article is that Citi's traders made more than $100 million in a single day 55 times! 55! Thats almost 4 times as many days as they lost $100 million. I'd take that any day. This article is written to continue the bad publicity Citi has experienced of late with little attention being paid to actual facts.