[By Larry Goldfarb]

Investors are putting enormous pressure on Citigroup's new chief executive, Michael L. Corbat, to make a quick and splashy impression.  Corbat was hired following the tumultuous tenure of Vikram Pandit.  Under Pandit, the stock price fell 89% and the economic conditions and the banks own poor tactics caused Citi to divest itself of many non-core businesses.

"Today's changes do not alter the strategic direction of Citi, which we believe is a good one," Mr. Corbat said during his first public conference call as chief executive. Still, he suggested the personnel change itself signaled change: "I wouldn't minimize the impact you can have on a place."  Investors are looking for Corbat to speed up the bank's overhaul and be more transparent about the process. But it was not clear on Tuesday what his actual plan was. 

The announcement on Tuesday:

• Caught Wall Street off guard, surprising even the bank's employees. But the board had been preparing for weeks, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Susanne Craig report for DealBook. The chairman, Michael E. O'Neill, and other board members "had been mapping out the transfer of power during meetings that occurred, in part, while Mr. Pandit was in Japan last week attending a gathering of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
• Shareholders seemed to welcome Tuesday's news. Christine Harper of Bloomberg News noted on Twitter: "Citigroup ousts C.E.O., shares rise 1.6%. Goldman Sachs reports profit that beats analyst estimates, shares fall 1%." Citigroup's board, wrote James Greiff of Bloomberg View, seemed to have arrived at "the same conclusion that many in the financial world had settled on long ago."

For more information, please read [NYT Dealbook, 10/17/12]