page_title: Citibank
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Citibank / History
caption_attribution_description: English: New York, corner between Wall Street and William Street 1798
context_page_description: Citibank is the consumer division of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City Bank of New York. The bank has 2,649 branches in 19 countries, including 723 branches in the United States and 1,494 branches in Mexico operated by its subsidiary Banamex. The U.S. branches are concentrated in six metropolitan areas: New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Miami. Aside from the U.S. and Mexico, most of the company's branches are in Poland, Russia, India and the United Arab Emirates.
  As a result of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and huge losses in the value of its subprime mortgage assets, Citigroup, the parent of Citibank, received a bailout in the form of an investment from the U.S. Treasury. On November 23, 2008, in addition to an initial investment of $25 billion, a further $20 billion was invested in the company along with guarantees for risky assets of $306 billion. The guarantees were issued at a time markets were not confident Citi had enough liquidity to cover losses from those investments.
context_section_description: The City Bank of New York was founded on June 16, 1812. The first president of the City Bank was the statesman and retired Colonel, Samuel Osgood. After Osgood's death in August 1813, William Few became President of the bank, staying until 1817, followed by Peter Stagg (1817–1825), Thomas Smith (1825–1827), Isaac Wright (1827–1832), and Thomas Bloodgood (1832–1843). Moses Taylor assumed ownership and management of the bank in 1837. During Taylor's ascendancy, the bank functioned largely as a treasury and finance center for Taylor's own extensive business empire. Later presidents of the bank included Gorham Worth (1843–1856), Moses Taylor himself (1856–1882), Taylor's son-in-law Patrick Pyne, and James Stillman (1891–1909).
  In 1831, City Bank was the site of one of America's first bank heists when two thieves made off with tens of thousands of dollars' worth of bank notes, and 398 gold doubloons.
  The bank also has the distinguishable history of financing war bonds for the War of 1812, serving as a founding member of the financial clearinghouse in New York (1853), underwriting the Union, during the American Civil War with $50 million in war bonds, opens the first foreign exchange department of any bank (1897), and received a $5 million deposit to be given to Spain for the US acquisition of the Philippines (1899). In 1865, the bank joined the national banking system of the United States under the National Bank Act and became The National City Bank of New York. By 1868, it was one of the largest banks in the United States, by 1893 it was the largest bank in New York, and the following year it was the largest within the United States. It would help finance the Panama Canal in 1904. By 1906, 11 percent of the federal government's bank balances were held by National City. National City at this time was the banker of Standard Oil, and the Chicago banking factions accused US Secretary of the Treasury Leslie Shaw of being too close with National City and other Wall Street operators.  In 1907, Stillman, then the bank's chairman, would intervene, along with J. P. Morgan and George Fisher Baker, in the Panic of 1907.
  When the Federal Reserve Act allowed it, National City Bank became the first U.S. national bank to open an overseas banking office when it opened a branch in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1914. Many of Citi's present international offices are older; offices in London, Shanghai, Calcutta, and elsewhere were opened in 1901 and 1902 by the International Banking Corporation (IBC), a company chartered to conduct banking business outside the U.S., which was forbidden to U.S. national banks. In 1918, IBC became a wholly owned subsidiary and was subsequently merged into the bank. The same year, the bank evacuated all of its employees from Moscow and Petrograd as the Russian Civil War had begun, but also established a branch in Puerto Rico. By 1919, the bank had become the first U.S. bank to have $1 billion in assets.
  As of March 9, 1921, there were four national banks in New York City operating branch offices: Catham and Phoenix National, the Mechanics and Metals National, the Irving National, and National City Bank.
  Charles E. Mitchell, also called "Sunshine" Charlie Mitchell, was elected president in 1921. In 1929, he was made chairman, a position he held until 1933. Under Mitchell, the bank expanded rapidly and by 1930 had 100 branches in 23 countries outside the United States. The policies pursued by the bank under Mitchell's leadership are seen by many people as one of the prime causes of the stock market crash of 1929, which led ultimately to the Great Depression.
  In 1933, a Senate committee, the Pecora Commission, investigated Mitchell for his part in tens of millions of dollars in losses, excessive pay, and tax avoidance, later leading to his resignation. Senator Carter Glass said of him: "Mitchell, more than any 50 men, is responsible for this stock crash."
  On December 24, 1927, its headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were blown-up by the Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni, in the frame of the international campa
caption: View of the northeast corner of William and Wall streets. The house to the far right became City Bank of New York's first home at 38 Wall Street, later renumbered as No.52. (Painting by Archibald Robertson, c. 1798)
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