How Prince lost the plot — and why the next episode may be Sachs and the Citi

I hazarded here in February that it would probably be a good idea if the world’s largest bank were to be run, every now and again, by a banker. At last the board of Citigroup has come round to my point of view, though it might have saved shareholders a few billion dollars by doing so sooner. Charles Prince has gone as chairman and chief executive after announcing a loss of perhaps $11 billion on mortgage-backed securities that turned out to be neither backed nor secure. Robert Rubin has been left holding the fort as chairman and Sir Win Bischoff as chief executive, pending the arrival of somebody new with a head for figures. The early gossip was that this would be John Thain, a former Goldman Sachs executive with a safe pair of hands, who went to run the New York Stock Exchange in 2004. But Thain has decided to take another big job on offer, running Merrill Lynch.