NEW YORK (Reuters) - Robert Rubin, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary, has resigned from Citigroup Inc, following months of criticism of his performance at the bank.
Rubin, 70, is stepping down immediately as senior counselor at New York-based CITIGROUP (C.NY) He will remain a director until Citigroup's annual meeting later this year. Rubin joined the bank in 1999.
In a letter to Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, Rubin praised management for making the "tough decisions" to restore Citigroup to health. But he admitted to not having seen the recent deterioration in markets.
"My great regret is that I and so many of us who have been involved in this industry for so long did not recognize the serious possibility of the extreme circumstances that the financial system faces today," Rubin wrote.
Rubin said he plans to focus more on outside activities and organizations, and "intensify" his work in public policy.
Citigroup is trying to shore up investor confidence as it sells assets and sheds 52,000 jobs after winning a government rescue to limit potential losses on $306 billion of troubled assets.
A November 23 front-page story in The New York Times called Rubin "an architect of the bank's strategy" to chase profit by expanding in collateralized debt obligations and other risky products.
The strategy backfired as credit markets tightened and housing prices fell, causing $20.3 billion of losses in the year ended Sept 30. Many commentators, editorial pages, websites and blogs have faulted Rubin for Citigroup's problems.
In late afternoon trading, Citigroup shares were down 35 cents, or 4.9 percent, at $6.81 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Dan Wilchins; Editing by Bernard Orr)
