Citigroup Inc.'s Primerica unit is dropping any reference to its parent on business cards, brochures and marketing materials, people familiar with the plans said, Bloomberg reported.
Primerica Financial Services Co-Chief Executive Officer John Addison made the announcement to Primerica representatives at a meeting in Los Angeles yesterday, said two people who attended, declining to be identified because the event wasn't public.
Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, who has tried unsuccessfully to sell Primerica since last year, may say as soon as tomorrow that it will dismantle the financial supermarket formed by his predecessors. Burdened by $20 billion of losses, Citigroup lost 77 percent of its market value last year and the stock has fallen 43 percent so far in 2009.
"People just don't want to be associated with a loser," said Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries, an Atlanta-based marketing firm. "You don't want to have part of the disaster on your business card. It's get out of Dodge time."
Citigroup spokeswoman Shannon Bell declined to comment.
The bank's remaining parts after the reorganization will include branch banking, advising on mergers, underwriting securities, processing payments, corporate lending and handling trades for clients, the people said earlier this week. Pandit may dump the CitiFinancial consumer-lending, unit, tag Tokyo- based Nikko Asset Management Co. for eventual sale and rein in trading with the bank's own capital, people familiar with the matter have said.