Citigroup’s chief executive Vikram Pandit yesterday told his staff in a Town Hall Meeting in New York, that more than 52,000 people would be losing their jobs, taking Citigroup’s total job cuts over the past year to 75,000.

In his presentation, Mr Pandit told staff that Citigroup’s target was to cut the headcount from its peak of 375,000 in Q4 2007 to 300,000 in the ‘near term’ – a cut of 20 per cent.

It is thought that 2,400 of Citigroup’s 12,000 London-based employees will be let go.

Following four quarters of consecutive losses and reports that it was unlikely to be in profit again before 2010, the world’s biggest bank is making the cuts in an attempt to slash costs by around £6.6billion so that it is “much better positioned to enter 2009 than it was when we entered 2008.”

According to the notes from the meeting, Mr Pandit assured staff that “underlying business remains strong, and revenues have been stable.”

“We have been very successful at bringing our expenses down. 2009 expenses are targeted to be down almost 20 percent from peak levels.

“We entered 2008 with more people, more businesses and more assets than fit our strategy. We expect near-term headcount to be down 20 percent in order to run the company in the right way.”

The notes continue: “We have significantly reduced our risky assets while putting the company in a very strong capital position.

“We have spent the last year “getting fit”, are more streamlined, and are in a strong competitive position to take advantage of future opportunities. We will be the long term winner in this industry.

“It may take sometime to get out of this recession. But when the global economy emerges, Citigroup is there more so than any other international bank.”

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