Citigroup Inc. The company was formed in by the merger of Citicorp, the bank holding company for Citibank , and Travelers ; Travelers was spun off from the company in It is one of the eight global investment banks in the Bulge Bracket. Citigroup is ranked 36th on the Fortune , [ 5 ] and was ranked 24 in Forbes Global in Citigroup operates with two major divisions: Institutional Clients Group ICG , which offers investment banking and corporate banking services, as well as treasury and trade solutions TTS and securities services such as custodian banking ; and Personal Banking and Wealth Management PBWM , which includes Citibank , a retail bank, the third largest issuer of credit cards , [ 7 ] as well as its wealth management business.
Citigroup was formed on October 8, , following the merger of Citicorp, the bank holding company for Citibank , and Travelers to create the world's largest financial services organization. The "New York" was dropped in on the th anniversary of the company's foundation.
The bank introduced its First National City Charge Service credit cardβpopularly known as the " Everything card " and later to become MasterCard βin The bank had been nicknamed "Citibank" since the s when it began using this as an eight-letter wire code address. Under his leadership, the next 14 years would see Citibank become the largest bank in the United States and the largest issuer of credit cards and charge cards in the world, and expand its global reach to over 90 countries.
Travelers Group, at the time of the merger, was a diverse group of financial concerns that had been brought together under CEO Sandy Weill. Its roots came from Commercial Credit, a subsidiary of Control Data Corporation that was taken private by Weill in November after taking charge of the company earlier that year. The new company took the Primerica name, and employed a " cross-selling " strategy such that each of the entities within the parent company aimed to sell each other's services.
Its non-financial businesses were spun off. In September , Travelers Insurance , which had suffered from poor real estate investments [ 2 ] and sustained significant losses in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew , [ 20 ] formed a strategic alliance with Primerica that would lead to its amalgamation into a single company in December With the acquisition, the group became Travelers Inc.
