Citi

When Citibank and the Travelers Group merged, the hype was about cross-selling retail products. Citi's distribution network and Travelers' products would be a potent combination, claimed Sandy Weill and John Reed. The investment banking brew had less to offer and was expected to be more troublesome. But so far it isn't working out like that. The investment bank is the success story. Meanwhile, cross-selling isn't working. Antony Currie reports

Edited by Antony Currie

Citicorp's chairman, John Reed, is now 59. Though he looks likely to remain in place while the merger with Travelers Group is work in progress it won't be too long before his succession is again debated. When it is, one name certain to figure prominently is Victor Menezes, who with Michael Carpenter now has the job of knitting together the corporate banking businesses of Citicorp and Travelers' Salomon Smith Barney.

As the markets began to crumble around Wall Street executives in late August, former Salomon Brothers chairman and chief executive officer Deryck Maughan was in a good mood. "He seemed tickled pink that he had sold the firm a year earlier," says David Berry, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, recalling a conversation with Maughan.

The fans love them both. Weill, the deal maker, is adored by Travelers' employees who hold big stakes in the company. Meanwhile Reed has kept his iron grip on Citibank by juggling his managers and mastering detail. The culture of the two companies is as different as the style of their CEOs. But the combination could be spectacular - if they can make it work. Peter Lee takes in the show.

Last month's announced merger of bulge-bracket firm Salomon Brothers with brokerage Smith Barney creates something bigger than Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. But the chairman of its parent, Travelers Group, may have overreached himself as he triggers another culture clash on Wall Street. By Michelle Celarier.

This year, Euromoney's Awards for Excellence are broader in scope than ever before. A number of new categories have been introduced to reflect changes in the structure of international markets.

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.