Citi's Pandit: Collateral Damage

In many ways, it's been a rough ride for Pandit since he took the reins. Internally, he has clashed with many members of Citi's old guard, including former CEO Sandy Weill. There have also been a number of public missteps.

Pandit got major egg on his face in September when Wells Fargo(WFC) snatched Wachovia away for $7 a share after many people believed Citi had secured a deal for $1 per share. He also ran afoul of FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair and has suffered several other humiliations, including being called a jerk by JPMorgan Chase(JPM) boss Jamie Dimon on a conference call of Wall Street CEOs last year, according to The Wall Street Journal .

A spokesperson for Citi declined to comment for this article.

While Pandit did not create the problems at Citi, he has been its public face as the government has poured upwards of $45 billion into it, and, rightly or wrongly, is widely associated with its woes.

TheStreet.com Chairman Jim Cramer, who says he has excellent sources at Citigroup, said he believes Pandit has the backing of the board and will survive in a comment on an earlier story I wrote. In the same comment, Cramer predicted Lewis' departure from BofA, so maybe he will be right again.

But it's worth noting that Pandit is now the only surviving CEO from among the handful of companies to receive extraordinary help from the government in the wake of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy last year. It's only logical to think that, if the company continues to struggle, the members of Citi's board will be asking themselves if he truly deserves that distinction.

--Written by Dan Freed in New York.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints