Citigroup will close two of its British personal loan operations and could cut more than 650 jobs, the embattled banking giant said on Monday.
Citi UK said that from today it will also stop offering loans through its Future Mortgages and CitiFinancial arms, which deal mainly in subprime mortgages and unsecured personal loans.“This business realignment reflects Citi’s recently announced global focus of allocating capital to the best opportunities for growth,” the company said in a statement.Citigroup did not say specifically how many jobs it would cut, but the bank wants to close its office at Doxford, in northeast England, and various Citi Financial locations throughout the country that it says employ a total of more than 650 people.The company said the online bank Egg, which it bought from Prudential PLC last year, will not be affected.Citigroup Inc chief executive Vikram Pandit has launched a painful restructuring process in the hope of restoring profitability to the bank
