Word: wriston
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...banking circles, the naming of a new chairman at Citicorp is like a coronation or a papal election. For years, speculation has mounted about the heir to Walter Wriston, 64, who retires in August as head of the largest (assets: $142 billion) private banking institution in the world. After a Citicorp board meeting last week, a bulletin was flashed to the company's 2,789 offices around the globe, and the suspense was over. The new chief: John S. Reed, 45, the brash and brainy young executive who led Citicorp's charge into nationwide consumer banking...
Reed's triumph was the climax of a highly unusual, highly publicized elimination tournament for the top spot. It began on Jan. 1, 1980, when Wriston and the Citicorp board elevated three officers to the new post of senior executive vice president. In addition to Reed, the head of the consumer division, the contenders were Thomas C. Theobald, 46, who oversaw lending to corporations and foreign governments, and Hans H. Angermueller, 59, the director of legal affairs and lobbying. Wriston never explicitly said that one of these men would be the next chairman, but to outsiders his move appeared...
...smooth-talking Angermueller, who was more popular than the sometimes abrasive Reed and the often arrogant Theobald. Then Theobald seemed to get ahead on the basis of Citicorp's profitable foreign lending operation, which was riding high until Latin American debt problems arose in 1982. Wriston refused to drop any hints about who was in the lead. In 1982 he promoted the three in tandem to the title of vice chairman. All earned precisely the same salaries...
Finance and foreign ministers from several Latin countries, including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, are planning to get together next week in Cartagena, Colombia, to discuss their debt problems. But Citibank Chairman Walter Wriston dismissed fears that the Latin nations would join forces to withhold payments. Said he: "They would be cutting off their source of funds. They would be cutting their own throats by setting up a cartel...
...leader of this movement is Citicorp ($130 billion), the largest U.S. banking company. The firm now operates 947 offices in 40 states. Boasts Wriston: "We do business with one family out of ten in the country." And Citicorp is reaching out for still more accounts. Last month it bought Chicago's ailing First Federal Savings & Loan ($4 billion) and Miami's New Biscayne Federal Savings ($1.9 billion). A year ago Citicorp purchased California's big Fidelity Savings & Loan ($2.9 billion). During the 1960s and '70s, many money-center banks began looking overseas in search of opportunities...