India's best known banker, Vikram Pandit, Citi CEO -- to attract Pandit to manage its alternative investments unit, Citi purchased his hedge fund, Old Lane, for $800 million. Although the fund never made much profit, the transaction netted Pandit $165 million. Subsequently, Citi wrote down more than $200 million in losses. Pandit used some of his proceeds to purchase the late actor Tony Randall's Manhattan apartment for $17.9 million, and Citi shareholders took the loss.

US banking giant Citigroup, which incurred huge losses in 2008 and 2009 and in which the US government currently has a stake of 27%, plans to cut its assets by 40% in a radical restructuring, chief executive Vikram Pandit said on Monday. The bank is determined to return to fundamentals and had learned its lesson from the financial crisis, Pandit said today at a conference at European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt.

He also advocated greater transparency on financial markets, in particular for derivative instruments. Citi reported losses of $9.0bn in 2009 after red ink of almost $30bn in 2008.

Iceland's Banking Crash: The Icelandic government welcomed the report published today by the Special Investigative Commission of the Parliament on the causes of the collapse of the Icelandic banking system. Consisting of independent experts, the investigative commission was established by the Icelandic parliament in December 2008. The report is the first comprehensive analysis of the causes of the collapse of the three largest Icelandic banks in the midst of the global financial crisis of October 2008.

“This important report will enable us to look forward by understanding what took place here in the months and years leading up to the banking collapse. We now need to acquaint ourselves with the report in its entirety. Iceland needs closure in order to fully focus on and finish the reconstruction which lies ahead. I believe that this report with its difficult and painful truths is a crucial part of that process”, said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir.

“Mistakes were certainly made. The private banks failed, the supervisory system failed, the politics failed, the administration failed, the media failed, and the ideology of an unregulated free market utterly failed. This has called for a fundamental review of many elements of our society. In that respect, democracy, the rule of law and close international cooperation have been and will continue to be our strongest weapons.”

“Rigorous reform has already been implemented. My government has systematically introduced changes to legislation and working procedures of the overall government and its institutions, but also related to the media and political parties. The investigative report is a stern reminder of the necessity for continuing this work. Iceland´s fundamentals remain strong and we will overcome the present economic difficulties.”

The Icelandic government has appointed a commission of independent experts to make further recommendations as to how the government and governmental institutions should respond to the report. In the coming days, the government will carefully study the report´s analysis and findings, consisting of over 2000 pages, and make decisions accordingly.

A summary and excerpts of the report in English are available here.

The National Bureau of Economic Research is not ready to declare when the US recession ended, but that is not stopping economists from raising their growth forecasts. CNBC's Steve Liesman has the full story: