Overview of Citigroup Citigroup Citigroup is the renowned global financial services company with over 200 million-customer accounts in 104 countries across six continents. It is the first financial services company to bring together banking, insurance and investments under the same name. It provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, insurance, securities brokerage, and asset management. Citigroup, ranked one of the world’s 10 most respected companies, has the most diverse array of products and the greatest distribution capacity of any financial firm in the world. Citigroup generated revenues of $86.2 billion in 2004, which produced net income of $17 billion. The equity base increased 13 percent to $115.5 billion (including Trust Preferred Securities) and the balance sheet reached $1.5 trillion. It reported record net income for the first quarter of 2005 of $5.44 billion, or $1.04 per share, both increasing 3% from the first quarter of 2004. Globally, there were 300,000 employees in 2004. The major brand names under Citigroup's trademark red umbrella include Citi Cards, CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage, CitiInsurance, Primerica, Diners Club, Citigroup Asset Management, The Citigroup Private Bank, and CitiCapital. Citibank at Early Days Citibank was formerly (1967–74) known as First National City Corporation, American holding company incorporated in 1967, with the City Bank of New York, National Association (a bank tracing to 1812), as its principal subsidiary. The latter's name changed successively to First National City Bank in 1968 and to Citibank, N.A. (i.e., National Association), in 1976. Citicorp was the holding company's popular and trade name from its inception but became the legal name only in 1974. In 1811 the U.S. Congress refused to renew the charter of the First Bank of the United States, the country's central bank, which had branches in such Cities as New York. Thus on June 16, 1812, some of the First Bank's New York shareholders and other investors secured state incorporation of the City Bank of New York, which was later established in the branch banking rooms of the old First Bank. The bank grew as New York City became the nation's commercial and financial capital, and in 1865 it was chartered under the National Bank Act and renamed the National City Bank of New York. In 1897 it became the first large American bank to open a foreign department, and in 1915 it became America's leading international bank upon the purchase of International Banking Corporation (founded 1902), which had 21 overseas offices in 13 countries and territories. Other mergers and acquisitions in the United States and overseas expanded the bank. Notably, in 1931 it acquired the Bank of America, N.A. (another descendant of the First Bank of the United States and no relation to the California-based bank), and in 1955 it merged with the First National Bank of the City of New York (founded 1863).
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