Citigroup Woman is Latest Banker to Stand Down

Sallie Krawcheck, one of the most powerful women on Wall Street, has become the latest high-profile banker to stand down amid the turmoil rattling the financial markets.

Krawcheck, 43, earned $11m (£6m) at Citigroup last year, and had once been considered a potential candidate to run the bank. She is leaving as part of a restructuring designed to get the firm back into profitability. Citigroup has lost $17.4bn in the past three quarters, largely through exposure to soured mortgages.

Krawcheck runs Citigroup's wealth management division, which is being brought under its institutional clients business. The bank said she is leaving "to pursue other opportunities".

Krawcheck joins a roll call of senior Wall Street executives to have left their jobs in the crisis. Her former boss, Charles Prince at Citigroup, Stan O'Neal, former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, and James Cayne at Bear Stearns stood down in quick succession around the turn of the year.

The ranks of senior women on Wall Street have been especially thinned. Erin Callan, the former chief financial officer at the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers, was replaced in June, and Morgan Stanley co-president Zoe Cruz left in December after 25 years with the firm. Credit Suisse hired Callan the following month to run its hedge funds business.

Michael Corbat becomes head of the wealth management business; Krawcheck will remain as division chairman for three months to help in the handover.

Vikram Pandit, who replaced Prince as chief executive, has been restructuring Citigroup since December. Pandit said Krawcheck had been "an invaluable asset". She was hired in 2002 to restore the reputation of its research division, Smith Barney, in the wake of a conflict of interest scandal. Two years later she was promoted to chief financial officer, but went back to running wealth management in 2007.