Citi

Chairman John Reed's successor could be any one of half a dozen managers running the new streamlined Citicorp - Reed is giving nothing away about his favoured choice. But this group is fast changing the culture of the "largest small bank in the world" as it retools its approach to branded products and global coverage. Peter Lee reports.

Citicorp suffered the latest in a series of disasters when president Richard Braddock left in unusual circumstances on the eve of a crucial capital­raising exercise. Its tendency to stumble into trouble has obscured chairman John Reed's success in reviving a bank that teetered on the brink of extinction. But ahead lies the big task of changing Citi's anarchic, competitive culture, with its hunger for revenue rather than profit.

Many have fled the austerity drive of Citicorp's head of investment banking, but he seems unfazed by criticisms that he may have swept out more than mere clutter.