Citigroup Stock Buybacks or Dividends May Return in ’12: CEO

Citigroup (C) expects to return cash to shareholders by 2012, CNBC reports. Presenting at the bank’s financial service conference in New York City, CEO Vikram Pandit did not say in what form the capital would be returned, via stock buybacks or dividends but reiterated the bank is likely to return capital to shareholders by 2012.

[CNBC]: When asked why Citi, which claims to have adequate capital, is not returning capital sooner as some of its competitors say they plan to do, Pandit cited remaining uncertainty about domestic and international capital levels.

“No one is more impatient than I am,” he said, adding by the middle of this year the bank will have the numbers it needs to make “prudent” decisions on returning capital.

Like other banks, Citi, the recipient of $45 billion in bailout funds from the taxpayers, halted its dividend 2009 to shore up capital. The firm is expected to the be last of the major banks to increase its dividend once it gets the OK from the Fed.

Citi gained 9 cents, or 1.91 percent, to $4.53 as of 12:40 p.m. in New York.

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