Citigroup pressured to change leadership

NEW YORK, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. regulators are pressing New York financial firm Citigroup Inc, to shake up its leadership team, sources said.

The government has provided Citigroup with $45 billion and guarantees on $269 billion of toxic mortgage assets and has recently pushed the company to sell a major share of its brokerage firm Smith Barney, The New York Times reported Monday.

It has also pressured the company to replace Chairman Winfried Bischoff, the German-born Briton who was knighted in 2000, the Times said.

The likely successor would be Richard Parsons, Chairman of Time Warner and a director at Citigroup.

Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit's job may be secure. Departing executive Robert Rubin, a former Treasury secretary, said Sunday there was "no current movement afoot to change executive management."

But the government is pressing the company to replace several directors, sources said.

The company's board is meeting Monday to discuss the selling $2.5 billion of Smith Barney shares to Morgan Stanley.

Both the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, declined to comment on the issue, the Times said.