By Dan Wilchins
NEW YORK (Reuters) - CITIGROUP (C.NY)Inc
Pandit spoke at the bank's traditionally long annual meeting, which stretched more than five hours.
Shareholders reelected all incumbent directors seeking reelection, including some that had been faulted for falling short in their oversight duties as the bank's troubles mushroomed.
The meeting came four days after the bank posted a $1.59 billion first-quarter profit before payments of preferred dividends under the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The results benefited from a big accounting change and improved trading results. Citigroup had lost $37.5 billion in the prior five quarters.
Pandit's job security has long been a topic of speculation, and the Financial Times on Tuesday said top Federal Deposit Insurance Corp officials have discussed who might replace him if the bank needs more government aid. It said new Chief Financial Officer Edward "Ned" Kelly could be a candidate.
"I intend to see this through," Pandit told shareholders. Asked why Kelly handled Citigroup's conference call with analysts to discuss quarterly results, Pandit said it was "only fair" to let Kelly deliver the "good news."
Pandit stood by Kelly's comments on Friday that the bank does not plan to change terms of an exchange offer to swap preferred shares for common, giving the government a potential 36 percent stake in Citigroup.
He also said he wants to restore the bank's dividend as soon as possible, and said Citigroup, whose shares fell below $1 early last month, was not actively considering a reverse stock split in connection with the exchange.
The degree to which even more aid could be needed may be decided in early May, when U.S. regulators complete stress tests to determine how well the nation's largest lenders would fare if the recession proves to be deep and long.
Chairman Richard Parsons said at Tuesday's meeting that working with regulators on the stress test was the bank's biggest focus.
At the meeting, Citigroup shareholders voted to install four new directors, including former U.S. Bancorp
They also reelected directors C. Michael Armstrong, John Deutch and Alain Belda despite opposition from shareholder adviser RiskMetrics Group Inc
Armstrong and Deutch have been audit committee members, and Belda is a former lead director.
All shareholder proposals were turned down, though proposals to give shareholders more power to call special meetings and demand more disclosure on compensation consultants almost won majority support.
Citigroup shares were up 27 cents, or 9.2 percent, at $3.21 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, outperforming the KBW Banks index <.BKX>, which was up 4.5 percent. Shares of Citigroup traded above $56 as recently as early 2007.
(Writing by Christian Plumb and Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Elinor Comlay; editing by John Wallace, Tim Dobbyn, Gary Hill)
