Citigroup Inc. share price down, CEO Corbat to keep Eugene McQuade in an attempt to get Federal Reserve approval

Citigroup Inc. revealed that it has asked Eugene McQuade to call off his retirement, oversee the submissions of the company and help it improve its relationship with regulators over the next years.

Mr. Michael Corbat, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the company, said in a memo to employees, which was cited by Bloomberg: “Whatever the gaps between the Fed’s expectations and our performance, we need to close them. Gene is fully empowered to do whatever is necessary.” As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Corbat added: “I will devote any resource required, to ensure our next capital plan is not objected to.”

The decision to keep Mr. McQuade comes at a difficult time for the company, because it is subjected to thorough observation and control. Moreover, in February 2014 Citigroup Inc. revealed that Banamex, which is the companys division located in Mexico, had posted a pretax loss estimated to about 400 million dollars.

According to one of the analysts working for Portales Partners LLC – Mr. Charles Peabody, Mr. Eugene McQuade will be given the position of Vice Chairman and will report directly to Citigroup Inc.s Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Peabody commented in an interview for Bloomberg: “Citi has had a history of control problems and lack of accountability, and I still think that that culture needs to change. Naming McQuade is certainly a dilution of what Gerspach was responsible for, no question about that.”

Citigroup Inc.s Chief Executive Officer explained that Mr. McQuade would head the companys efforts to get an approval for its capital plans of the Federal Reserve. Last week it became clear that the proposal of Citigroup to increase its stock dividend and repurchase stock estimated to 6.4 billion dollars was rejected by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed rejected the companys proposal, saying: “Taken in isolation, each of the deficiencies would not have been deemed critical enough to warrant an objection, but when viewed together, they raise sufficient concerns regarding the overall reliability of Citigroup’s capital planning process”

Citigroup Inc. fell by 1.16% in New York on Thursday to close the session at $47.68 per share, marking a one-year change of +12.19%. The company is valued at $144.87 billion. According to CNN Money, the 28 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Citigroup Inc have a median target of $60.00, with a high estimate of $68.00 and a low estimate of $51.20. The median estimate represents a +25.84% increase from the last price of $47.68.