Although there will be no mention of it from Citigroup (NYSE:C) or John Deutch, the board member for the giant financial institution will not seek re-election to the board this year, as pressures to get people on the board with more experience has been exerted by the government, generating the decision by Deutch to pursue other interests more suited to his skills.
When asked about the situation, Citigroup referred questions back to the filing, which of course stated no reason on why Deutch was stepping down.
The news was released Thursday in a filing by Citigroup with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Per the filing, Deutch communicated to Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons concerning his decision. The annual meeting to determine whether to retain or vote in new board members is set for April 20.
All we know about this that has been out in the open came in the midst of last summer when Citigroup stated that Deutch would become part of their Citi Holdings oversight committee while stepping down from the board. That also included Deutch no longer being part of the committee dealing with audit and risk management, which the performance of Citigroup implied wasn’t being done efficiently.
Rather what Deutch will seemingly be doing is dealing with operations and IT, areas he actually has some experience in, having served as a director in U.S. intelligence and as U.S. deputy secretary of defense.
As mentioned earlier, the idea is to get more people on the board that understand the banking business.
Deutch has served as a board member since 1998, when Citigroup was created from the merger of Citicorp and Travelers.
