Citigroup (NYSE:C) announced Richard Stuckey has stepped down from his position as head of the Special Asset Pool where he oversaw about $241 billion in bad bonds and mortgages which he has trimmed by close to half since January 2009, at which time he was named to the role.
In an internal memo, Citigroup said that Stuckey has stepped down from the head of the unit, but will stay on as an adviser until the latter part of 2010, when he will retire. He is staying on to help with the transition period.
Replacing Stuckey will be Aloysius T. McLaughlin, who has headed up sales of newly issued asset-backed securities and investment-grade bonds at the bank since 2000, with bonds being added to his responsibilities in 2005.
As of the end of March, Stuckey shrunk the size of the toxic assets to $126 million. Citigroup has been using the Special Asset Pool to downsize the company after the bailout of $45 billion resulted in pressure from the government to cut back on their size. They’ve also been divesting of other non-core assets to meet those demands as well.
The overall asset pool under the umbrella of Citi Holdings was $503 billion, which included the Special Asset Pool we’re talking about and lending properties related to student loans and auto loans, along with CitiFinancial and other company assets.
