Citi's a Tough Sell

The highly profitable Smith Barney brokerage would be the easiest asset for Citi to sell, Peters says. It has "an excellent name brand" and "some very valuable clients," Peters says. "It's a real gem inside Citigroup. It's the easiest thing to look at and say that's attractive."

Peters says that other asset management firms, brokers and private-equity firms would be interested in acquiring Smith Barney, and likely more in a position to acquire rather than another global bank, most of which are struggling themselves.

The problem is that in a tough market, "it would not sell at the price that Citigroup would want for it," Peters says.

Citi's deposit base, particularly outside of the U.S., is also attractive. Banks, including Citi, have been scoping out acquisition targets in order to obtain more deposits as the capital markets remain frozen. The deposits provide a cheap source of funding for the banks.

Besides its deposits, Citi's fee businesses, including wealth management and transactions services, are the most attractive pieces of the pie.

Pirker notes that the firm's transaction services, while profitable is not core to Citi. He added that the firm's Japanese brokerage unit Nikko Cordial is another attractive business line.

A sale of the entire firm is unlikely, but plenty of "cherry picking" is likely, Pirker says.

"The problem is now what are the valuable pieces. In these times it's just so difficult to say because who would have thought that [Merrill Lynch (MER Quote)] would go as it did?" he notes.