New York Local News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has led the way in fighting lucrative bonuses for Wall Street executives, called Citigroup's announcement that it will cut 53,000 more jobs Monday a "sad and disturbing development for the company."

The banking giant made the announcement amid struggles to steady itself after suffering massive losses from deteriorating debt.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, Cuomo went on to rip the company for saying it will wait until 2009 to make a decision on bonuses for top executives.

"As Citigroup suffers, so too do investors, employees, and taxpayers. At the very least, Citigroup should follow Goldman Sachs' lead and announce quickly that top executives will not be receiving bonuses this year. Citigroup's stated intention to wait until the new year to make its bonus decisions is a mistake," he said. 

"After four consecutive quarterly losses, it seems only fair that top executives should shoulder their fair share of these difficult economic times. It would send exactly the wrong message for Citigroup's top brass to collect bonuses while investors, taxpayers, and now Citigroup's own employees suffer."

The plans, posted on the company's Web site, are being discussed by CEO Vikram Pandit at the company's town hall meeting in New York Monday with employees.

The company said total headcount is being reduced by 20 percent from its peak of 375,000 at the end of 2007; the company had already announced in October that it was eliminating about 22,000 jobs from those levels. The total workforce reductions include thousands of jobs that will be lost when Citigroup completes the sale of Citi Global Services and its German retail banking business.

The New York-based bank has posted four straight quarterly losses, including a loss of $2.8 billion during the third quarter. The company said that in addition to job cuts, it plans to lower expenses by about 20 percent, and that is has reduced its assets by more than 20 percent since the first quarter of the year.

Citi shares fell 42 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $9.10 in morning trading. The company's shares have been trading at 13-year lows.

Shortly before the town hall meeting in New York, Citigroup Chairman Win Bischoff said at a business forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that it would be irresponsible for Citi and other companies not to look at staffing in the event of a prolonged economic downturn.

"What all of us have done -- and perhaps injudiciously -- we've added a lot of people over ... this very benign period," Bischoff said.

"If there is a reversion to the mean ... those job losses will obviously fall particularly heavily on the financial sector," he added. "Certainly they will fall particularly heavily on London and New York."

In his comments to the Associated Press, Bischoff did not rule out the likelihood that Citi's leaders would go without bonuses this year -- a move that would effectively amount to a substantial pay cut for the company's executives.

"Watch this space," he said when asked about lost bonuses.

On Sunday, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said seven top executives, including Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, opted out of receiving cash or stock bonuses for 2008 amid the ongoing credit crisis.

"Citigroup is, of course, not the only company in this situation. Other companies like AIG, who have received billions in rescue financing from taxpayers, also need to take a hard look in the mirror when determining the right thing to do on executive bonuses during these very difficult economic times," Cuomo said.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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