Citigroup to workers: Pinch those pennies

The head of Citigroup’s institutional-clients group urges employees to be much more conservative with their expenses.

There was no gray area in a memo recently issued by Citigroup: Make those copies in black and white.
That was just one of the cost-cutting measures outlined by the Wall Street giant as it tries to rebound from mounting losses from the credit crunch.
An Aug. 15 memo issued by John Havens, head of Citigroup’s institutional-clients group — obtained by The New York Times — urges employees to be much more conservative with their expenses.
In addition to discouraging color printing and copying for office purposes, he also requested that internal presentations be printed on both sides of the page.
BlackBerry usage will be restricted under the new guidelines as will expense accounts.
“Each of us must do our part to manage our expenses by challenging every dollar we spend to ensure that it is truly necessary and in compliance with our policies,” Mr. Havens wrote.
New York-based Citigroup Inc. is coming off three straight quarterly earnings losses, which has led to a plan to cut 9,000 jobs through April 2009 in addition to the 4,200 positions already slashed (InvestmentNews, April 18).
A call to Citigroup was not immediately returned.