Prince abdicates Citigroup throne, $8-11 billion writedown seen

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Robert Rubin, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary, will become Citigroup's chairman, while Sir Win Bischoff, the chairman of Citigroup's European operations, will become interim chief executive, the newspaper said.

Citigroup did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prince's departure ends a tumultuous four-year tenure marked by heavy management turnover, questions over strategy, and mounting losses from bad loans and mortgages.

The added write-down would come just three weeks after Citigroup announced a $6.5 billion write-down for loan losses, subprime mortgages and other debt.

It would also come five days after Merrill Lynch & Co ousted its own chief executive, Stanley O'Neal, following an $8.4 billion write-down.

Citigroup has said it wants to boost capital, and CIBC World Markets analyst Meredith Whitney estimated that more than $30 billion may be needed. The problems are spurring more calls for the bank to be broken up because it is too unwieldy.

"I just don't think (Prince) was the right person to run Citigroup," said Jim Huguet, co-chief executive of Great Companies LLC in Tampa, Florida, a Citigroup shareholder. "He was brought in to fix their legal problems because he's a lawyer, but they need someone who is capable of really building the business, and I don't think that's Prince's forte."

Rubin, 69, joined Citigroup in 1999 after more than four years as Treasury secretary, and chairs the bank's executive committee. He has long been a close adviser to Prince, focused on strategy rather than day-to-day operations. Before joining the Clinton administration, Rubin had spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs & Co, becoming co-chairman of the investment bank.

Bischoff assumed his present position in May 2000 after the acquisition of Schroders Plc's investment banking business by Citigroup unit Salomon Smith Barney. He had been chairman of Schroders since May 1995.

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