Established in 1812, Citibank, a well-known international bank, had the original name “the City Bank of New York.” Later on, it became the First National City Bank of New York.

Its first president was Samuel Osgood, a former Postmaster General of the United States. Eventually, management and ownership went to a protégé of John Jacob Astor, also one of the preeminent individuals of the business world in the 19th century, Moses Taylor. During his term, the bank wholly worked as a finance center and treasury for Taylor’s own massive business empire.

It became The National City Bank of New York in 1863 since it joined the U.S.’ new national banking system. In 1868, it gained recognition as one of the biggest banks in the country, and in 1897, it became the first major U.S. bank to create a foreign department. By 1896, Citibank became the first bank to contribute to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

At present, it functions as the consumer banking arm of Citigroup. It gained the reputation of being the largest bank in the United States by holdings as of March 2007.

It is widely operating in more than 100 countries in the whole world. It has 1,400 offices worldwide, with more than half of it found in the United States, mostly in the New York City area, Miami, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. metro areas, as well as in California.

Aside from its regular bank transactions, they also offer credit cards, insurance and investment goods. Its online services department, with about 15 million users, is among the most profitable.

Due to the financial crisis currently gripping the world, and huge losses in the mortgage assets, the U.S. government helped it through an agreement with Citigroup. On November 23, 2008, a whooping $25 billion went to the corporation as an investment, together with guarantees for uncertain assets of up to $306 billion.

On January 16, 2009, Citigroup declared that it would become two companies; however, it will continue with the traditional banking business while Citi Holdings Inc. will own the more risky investments, with some for use in reinforcing the balance sheet of the core business that is Citicorp. The goal of the split up is for Citigroup to dump “the dead weight” on Citicorp, so it does not bring the whole corporation down in one gigantic swoop.

Additional News:

Citibank enters alliance with Singapore Airlines.

Citigroup to Get $2.5 Billion Boost Off Japanese Sale

New York Times profile of Citibank and Citigroup.

Post Author: guest

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