Citigroup to recover? Bank of America?

The coming of Vikram Pandit was smudged by the known reservations of some directors. It's expected for directors to disagree on the merits of various candidates. But to leak them is another matter. But Pandit dealt with the tepid vote of confidence very well: he came out swinging. By grappling with the SIV issue right off the bat, he earned plaudits. Most think the jury is still out long-term. At some point, he'll have to confront the issue. Should Citigroup be broken up? The appeal of a universal bank has waned a lot and some competitors, Bank of America, seem bent on scaling back to their commercial roots. Pandit will have to make a definitive statement on this. Selling off a few assets will not do. It has to be either or. We'll see. Again, this reminds of Lou Gerstner at IBM. He surprised many by deciding to keep the firm intact and finding synergies.

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