[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Citibank, the 3rd-largest U.S. bank by assets, is planning some layoffs, but according to CFO John Gerspach, they will likely be held to a minimum.  While the firm has been engaged, to some extent, in cuts since the beginning of the year, its workforce current stands at 261,000, which is just 2,000 below the level in March 2012 - 263,000.  The relatively low reduction of jobs would appear to support the contention of Citigroup CFO that job cuts will be held to a minimum.

[C-I Note: However, everyone associated with the markets should know by now that "past results are no indication of future performance.  That said, anything can happen in the future with job cuts.  Hopefully, we're wrong.]

Who Might Be On the Chopping Block. Driven by new trading regulations and the European sovereign-debt crisis, which has minimized risk-taking, the company said in January, the bank has taken to cost-cutting.  This month, the bank will layoff 5,000 workers, including 1,200 from its securities and banking division.

[CI Note: How is the bank's health overall, if the bank has to cut from a division that experienced a 2% increase in revenue in the first 6 months from a year earlier to $11.9 billion?]

“There certainly is a good element of headcount reduction that is contributing to the overall expense reduction.  We’re going to continue to look at that business and make sure that we’ve got it sized appropriately." -- Mr. Gerspach, in response to questions from analysts.

Nevertheless, the CEO warned against expectations of Citi trending downward:

"You have seen expenses coming down in the business year-on-year, and we’ve now had two consecutive quarters of lowering expenses.  But I’m not going to tell you that you should expect to see two more quarters of expense reduction coming out of securities and banking."

For the industry's sake, we hope so. For further details, go to [Bloomberg, 7/16/12].