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Citibank is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citygroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York. As of June 2009, Citigroup is the fourth largest bank holding company in the United States by domestic deposits, after Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase.
Citibank has retail banking operations in more than 100 countries and territories around the world. More than half of its 1,400 offices are in the United States, mostly in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Silicon Valley and Miami. More recently, Citibank has expanded its operations in the Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Dalls and Washington D. C. metropolitan areas, albeit with a mixed record of success. Citigroup executives were pleased with the performance of the Boston branches, but were less impressed with the Philadelphia experiment, according to a person familiar with the situation.
In addition to the standard banking transactions, Citibank offers insurance, credit card and investment products. Their online services division is among the most successful in the field, claiming about 15 million users.
As a result of the Globalfinancial crisis of 2008-2009 and huge losses in the value of its subprime mortgage assets, Citibank was rescued by the U.S. government under plans agreed for Citygroup. On November 23, 2008, in addition to initial aid of $25 billion, a further $25 billion was invested in the corporation together with guarantees for risky assets amounting to $306 billion. |