was founded in
1812 as ''City Bank of New York''. Citibank is now the consumer and corporate banking arm of
Financial Services giant
Citigroup , the largest company of its kind in the world.
Citibank branch (
New York City ,
USA ).]]
Founded in
1812 as City Bank of New York, in
1865 it joined the national banking system and became The National City Bank of New York. In
1894 , it became the largest
Bank in the
United States , and in
1902 , it began expanding internationally and became the first major U.S. bank to establish a foreign department. In
1913 it was the first contributor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Charles E. Mitchell was elected president in
1921 and in
1929 was made chairman, a position he held until
1933 . Under Mitchell the bank expanded rapidly and by
1930 had 100 branches in 23 countries outside the United States.
In
1952 ,
James Stillman Rockefeller was elected president and then chairman in
1959 , serving until
1967 . The bank changed its name to First National City Bank of
New York in
1955 , then shortened it to First National City Bank in
1962 , and changed it to Citibank in
1976 . In
1981 , Citibank chartered a
South Dakota subsidiary to take advantage of new laws that raised the state's maximum permissible interest rate on loans to 25 percent (then the highest in the nation).
Citibank was one of the first U.S. banks to introduce
Automatic Teller Machine s in the
1970s , in order to reduce the number of human tellers and give 24-hour access to accounts.
Citibank's operations in
California are fairly recent, since it bought out Cal-Fed in
2001 . Also in 2001, Citibank settled a lawsuit for improperly assessing late fees. The class action lawsuit was for 45 million dollars. Following this Citibank lobbied in Congress to pass legislation that would limit class action lawsuits to 5 million dollars unless they were initiated on a federal level. Many consumer advocate websites report that Citibank is still improperly assessing late fees.
In August of
2004 , Citibank entered the
Texas market with the purchase of First American Bank of
Bryan ,
Texas . The deal established Citigroup's retail banking presence in Texas, giving Citibank over 100 branches, $3.5 billion in assets and approximately 120,000 new customers in the state. First American Bank was renamed Citibank Texas after the take-over was completed on
March 31 ,
2005 .
It is hoped that with both California and Texas markets, Citibank can appeal to both states'
Latino population, and offer products on both sides of the border through Citibank in the U.S., and
Banamex (
Citigroup 's Mexican division) in
Mexico .
Citibank has operations in more than 100 countries and territories around the world. More than half of its 1,400 offices are in the United States, mostly in the
New York City ,
Chicago ,
Miami , and
Washington DC metropolitan areas, as well as in
California .
In addition to the standard banking transactions, Citibank offers
Insurance ,
Credit Card and investment products. Their online services division is among the most successful in the field, claiming about 15 million users.
In April of
2006 , Citibank struck a deal with
7-Eleven to put its
ATMs in over 5,500 convenience stores in the U.S.
- Citibank, N.A. - The "original" Citibank, primarily doing business in New York State and the tri-state New York City metropolitan area. Also the parent company of the other subsidiaries.
- Citibank Texas, N.A. - The former First American bank.
- Citibank (West), F.S.B. - The former Citicorp Savings (a Savings And Loan operating in California), as well as the former California Federal Bank and Golden State Bank.
- Citibank, F.S.B. - The primary Citibank subsidiary serving all other states, based in Chicago.
- Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. - A credit card and lending-only bank based in South Dakota, including the former Universal Bank and Associates National Bank.
- Fiscal Year end: December
- 2002 Sales (in mil.) $45,883.0
- 2002 Net Income (mil.) $6,356.0
- 2002 Employees 129,545
- In early 2006 Citibank began operating ATM's at 7-Eleven stores. Citibank does not charge its customers transaction fees to use these ATM's.
- Vladimir Levin is the pseudonym of the mastermind of a group of hackers that stole $10 million from Citibank
- Citigroup is the parent company of Citibank
- Citigold
