Citibank: A National Champion Going Beyond Limits (Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries)

The most exciting national banking champion of the 20th century might have been Citibank. Originally being a kind of private New York central bank and investment bank in one, the Bank grew its business both abroad and in terms of products, being limited by restrictive U.S. regulation from the 1930s, but readily finding ways to work with it creatively and pressing for its release, while at the same time serving interests of ‘America Inc’. A merger with Travelers Group, announced in 1998, appeared to be a too big step and was partially unwound already before the Global Financial Crisis hit the banking world, making ‘Citi’ even smaller. As to striking persons in the Citibank history, the names of the visionary Walter Wriston, the operations and consumer-interested John Reed and finally the aggressive dealmaker Stanford Weil come to the fore.