Citigroup fired 50,000 employees around the world

Walkers before an office of Citi bank, in the financial district of New York. Picture: AP / RICHARD DREW MORE INFORMATION The bags react with falls after the Washington Agreements Japan falls into recession after seven years of growth Obama said that reducing the deficit is not a priority Idoya Noáin NEW YORK "Getting in shape. Hurry!" Under this heading emphatic, on page 16 of a presentation made yesterday at a town hall meeting with employees, the chief executive of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit, announced one of its proposals to try to restore profits at banking giant U.S.: leave your staffing at least 300,000 employees. To achieve this goal Citigroup fired from more than 50,000 workers around the world, a cut of 14% of the workforce regarding the height of the end of 2007, when it had 375,000 people on the payroll. The organization with headquarters in New York declined to offer a specific timetable or specific details about the plan, but the U.S. chain CNBC yesterday referred to anonymous sources to ensure that the layoffs will be implemented "in the short term." And the cut will be the second and most important of Citigroup, which has already dispensed in recent months has 23,000 employees. SALE OF UNITS This time, as has been announced for staff cuts will be implemented primarily through the sale of units and the non-renewal of appointments for vacancies. It is estimated that most of redundancies will arise in the investment banking group, but predicts that other divisions, like the legal department or human resources, will also receive a strong impact of the coup. The mass layoffs are the main tool - along with a proposal to cut costs between 16 and 19% - which was introduced yesterday by the U.S. banking group to try to recover positions and results. And this recovery is essential, especially after the heavy losses that Citigroup has been linked to the crisis and after the unsuccessful attempt to get hold of Wachovia (the bank that eventually ended up in the hands of Wells Fargo). That failed operation has helped to reduce the value of Citigroup compared to other competitors such as Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. The value of their assets today is a 15% lower than a year ago, and Citigroup has had to increase from 7539 to 18,960 million euros to reserve the money to cover loan losses. OTHER FALL IN THE BAG The news pushed yesterday to another drop in the stock markets as shares of Citigroup, which have lost nearly 70% of its value so far this year and which are for the first time in 12 years in single-digit figures. In the last quarter, Citigroup has suffered losses of 2211 million, which coupled with the rise of the previous three and the total number of negative results to 15,800 million. Some analysts predict that profits not return until 2010 and only the bad situation has contributed to increasing criticism of the management of Pandit, who has just one year at the helm of the devalued group.