Citigroup founder surrenders helm

Sandy Weill, a high-profile Wall Street banker, is relinquishing the helm of Citigroup after a 40-year career which has recently been marred by controversy over his behaviour during the dotcom boom.

After months of speculation about succession planning, the 70-year-old banker is to give up his title of chief executive to Chuck Prince, a close colleague for 20 years and the current head of the corporate and investment banking arm.

Concern about the lack of a successor for Mr Weill is said to have led to the departure of non-executive Reuben Mark this year.

Mr Weill will retain his role as chairman until 2006. He intends to continue to play an important role at the firm he has become synonymous with since stunning the financial world in 1998 when he created Citigroup by merging Travelers and Citicorp to form the world's largest financial firm.

"I don't think that my brain is going to go dead this after noon or next week," he said. "I love Citigroup. I am proud of the extraordinary value we've created for shareholders but even prouder of the quality of our people and the culture we have built together."

The announcement was enough to knock Citigroup's shares, which have climbed 134% since the firm was created, especially because his departure yesterday coincided with a controversial moment in Citigroup's history.

The firm recently paid a $400m (£250m) fine in an in dustry-wide settlement with US regulators over practices during the dotcom boom.

Mr Weill was implicated after US regulators produced emails which appeared to show he put pressure on telecoms analyst Jack Grubman to rethink his view on AT&T at a time when Citigroup was looking for investment banking business from the telecoms company.

Only this week Mr Weill returned to his deal-making roots, buying Sears' credit card portfolio for $3bn.