Vikram Pandit stood fidgeting in a park near New York’s City Hall, looking owlish in a suit and rimless spectacles. It was May 7, 2012, and he’d had better springs. Citigroup (C), where he was chief executive officer, had recently flunked a government “stress test” meant to identify which big lenders were still shaky in the wake of the financial crisis. The Federal Reserve had vetoed an $8 billion stock buyback, and irritated shareholders had just voted against Pandit’s pay package of $15 million.
Today the news was better. Pandit took his place next to a podium as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced to a gaggle of reporters that, after three years of study, the city was finally starting a bike-sharing program—one that would cost taxpayers nothing, thanks to a $41 million deal with Pandit’s Citigroup. The cobalt blue two-wheelers, the mayor said, would be called Citi Bikes.
-Business Week
