TheoWire

Weeks before Vikram S. Pandit’s surprise resignation on Tuesday as chief executive of Citigroup, the banking giant’s powerful chairman, Michael E. O’Neill, was privately huddling with other board members to plan how to replace him, according to several people briefed on the talks.

The frustrations of the board members had been building. This year the bank was publicly embarrassed when the Federal Reserve indicated Citi was not healthy enough to start paying more money back to shareholders.

Goldman Sachs executives have long been among the most richly paid on Wall Street in the best of times. They are now poised to reap a windfall that was sown in the dark days of the financial crisis in 2008.

The Obama administration is weighing how the government can encourage workers to turn their savings into guaranteed income streams following a collapse in retiree accounts when the stock market plunged.

The U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments will ask for public comment as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams, according to Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry, who are spearheading the effort.