Former Citi CEO: ‘I’m Sorry’

Words you don’t hear every day from a banker: “I’m sorry,” said John S. Reed, who served as the CEO of Citigroup when it was created in 1998, for his role in building the financial behemoth. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened.” Asked what he would do to fix the financial sector, Reed said “I would compartmentalize the industry for the same reason you compartmentalize a ship. If you have a leak, the leak doesn’t spread and sink the whole vessel. So generally speaking you’d have consumer banking separate from trading bonds and equity.” Reed also said lawmakers were wrong to overturn the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, a move that he supported at the time.