Citi's Pandit not to receive bonuses for 2008

New York Citigroup Inc's Chairman Win Bischoff and Chief Executive Vikram Pandit won't receive bonuses for 2008, as part of a series of moves the company announced on Wednesday as it formalised its bailout agreement with the US government, a media report said on Thursday.

Quoting a memo to employees by Pandit, the leading financial daily 'Wall Street Journal' said Senior Counselor Robert Rubin is also foregoing the annual bonus and bonuses for other top executives would be "reduced substantially".

Citigroup, which has now received USD 45 billion in federal capital infusions and a government-financed arrangement to insulate it from hundreds of billions of dollars in potential losses, was widely expected to substantially curtail its compensation costs, the Journal said.

Other financial institutions that are receiving taxpayer funds previously have announced that their top executives will forego bonuses for 2008, a year in which Citigroup and other banking companies were battered by losses, it noted.

The terms of the latest rescue package, disclosed in a securities filing Wednesday, are the latest sign that the Treasury Department is seeking to exert sway over the internal Citigroup operations, the paper said.

Terms of the latest capital infusion require Citigroup to award at least 60 per cent of any 2008 bonuses to top executives in the form of deferred stock or cash. Like other institutions, Citigroup is instituting a "clawback" provision to bonuses that will allow the company to recoup payments under certain circumstances, the Journal said.

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