Change at top as Citi sees writedowns

Citi yesterday confirmed the retirement of Charles Prince, the US bank's chairman and chief executive officer.

Prince will be succeeded as chairman of the board by Robert Rubin, who was chairman of the bank's executive committee.

Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe, will be the acting chief executive officer until a new appointment is decided by a special committee.

The news comes following the bank's announcement of a fresh spate of writedowns on its $55 billion US subprime exposures. The writedowns are estimated by the bank to amount to between $8 billion and $11 billion, and are attributable to downgrades on those securites by rating agencies over the last two months.

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