Saturday, November 22, 2008
How do you bring down a Trillion Dollar Bank?
The New York Times has a look at Citibank and where that once great institution went wrong. It can be summed up in one passage.
Normally, a big bank would never allow the word of just one executive to carry so much weight. Instead, it would have its risk managers aggressively look over any shoulder and guard against trading or lending excesses.There is a lot more to the report, including the role of Robert Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary who is an economic adviser on the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama. What is worrisome is the thought that Mr Rubin is Obama's Phil Gramm.
But many Citigroup insiders say the bank’s risk managers never investigated deeply enough. Because of longstanding ties that clouded their judgment, the very people charged with overseeing deal makers eager to increase short-term earnings — and executives’ multimillion-dollar bonuses — failed to rein them in, these insiders say.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Post a Comment