Citigroup Inc. said Peter Knitzer, a 13-year veteran who helped oversee retail banking staples including savings accounts and debit cards, plans to leave by yearend.
Knitzer, 51, "has decided to pursue other career opportunities," North American consumer banking chief executive Terri Dial wrote to employees in an Aug. 26 memo confirmed by Citigroup spokesman Michael Hanretta.
His duties will be assumed on an interim basis by three people, Dial wrote.
He is the third senior consumer banking executive to leave since chief executive officer Vikram Pandit took over Citigroup in December 2007. Also this year, Citigroup announced the departures of Steven Freiberg and Ajay Banga, who jointly ran the consumer bank from 2005 through March 2008, when Dial was hired.
Dial, 59, has recruited her own executive team, including Brad Dinsmore, a former Bank of America Corp. executive hired this year to oversee retail banking in the United States, and Deborah McWhinney, a former Charles Schwab Corp. executive hired in April to run Citigroup's network of 600 branch-based brokers.
As part of a broader executive shakeup in July, Citigroup hired retail banking veteran Eugene M. McQuade to oversee the entire commercial bank.
In 2007 Knitzer became chairman and chief executive officer of Citibank North America, where he oversaw all retail banking in the United States and Canada. Last year he was moved to a different role, developing and marketing products to Citibank customers. On July 28, he was described as a "group executive vice president" in a press release.
