[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit has no plans to split up the bank, despite calls from industry veterans like his predecessor Sandy Weill, who now are strong advocates for smaller, more traditional bank franchises.  Mr. Pandit said his bank, had already gone back to the basics of banking and as far as he was concerned, is set for success.

"What's left here is essentially the old Citicorp.  That's a tried and proven strategy.  Why did it work?  Because it was a strategy based upon operating the business and serving clients and not a strategy based on dealmaking.  That's the fundamental difference." -- Mr. Pandit, as interviewed by The Financial Times.

Since 1998, when Sandy Weill pulled off the Travellers' acquisition - which revolutionized the banking industry and set the stage for the demise of Glass-Steagall - Citi had sold off most of the units from that deal.   After Mr. Pandit assumed leadership of the firm, the bank has been pushing through the sale of $600 billion in assets, and 60 different businesses. Drawbacks. On the flip side, the firm continues to clean up its non-core assets held in its Citi Holdings unit, which have brought almost $2 billion of losses so far this year, compared with last year's $5.9 billion of first-half profits for the group overall.  It also faces a potential charge on the value of its stake in its brokerage joint venture with Morgan Stanley depending on the outcome of a 3rd-party valuation due this month. Nevertheless, Citigroup is now set to glean the majority of its business from emerging markets, that include Asian and Latin American consumers and trade between those regions and Africa.  This currently makes up almost 50% of its business, Mr. Pandit said.

"When you look at our business, the biggest growth trend is in our ability and our requirement to serve those emerging-market multinationals in the way we used to serve and continue to serve some of the developed-market multinationals."

For further details, go to [Financial Times via CNBC, 8/20/12].