Bank of America Corp (BAC), Citigroup Inc (C): The Right Way to Think About This Bank

As for leadership, it’s no secret that Pandit is now gone — replaced in a coup engineered by Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) chair Michael E. O’Neill last October — but exactly how his successor would behave is no longer a secret.

Michael Corbat was O’Neill’s handpicked replacement for Pandit and is a well-regarded 30-year veteran of Citi who took over the bank’s global wealth-management unit at the height of the financial crisis. Most recently he ran Citi Holdings.

But more impressive than his background is the way he’s handled himself since he assumed the role of CEO. In his first statement, he humbly acknowledged the work his predecessor did in beginning to turn the bank around.  Then, in a statement to a group of Citi executives in February, he said: “You are what you measure.” This was an attempt to succinctly explain how bank executives and their performance would be judged moving forward.

While perhaps not as emotionally satisfying as a typically brash statement from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, it’s clear to me that Citi needs a measuring man like Corbat much more than it needs a swashbuckler like Dimon.

Finally, just weeks ago, Corbat conspicuously didn’t request a dividend increase or significant share buybacks from the Federal Reserve, even after his bank did decidedly well on its 2013 stress tests. To me, it’s a sign that he’s more concerned about the long-term health of his bank than the short-term happiness of his shareholders.

Foolish bottom line
This article isn’t meant to be the end-all, perfectly persuasive pitch to buy Citi. Citi still has a ways to go before it’s operating completely normally and at its full potential for profit, but I think it’s turned a corner and is worth taking a chance on right now.

The article The Right Way to Think About Citigroup originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor John Grgurich owns shares of Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. Follow John’s dispatches from the bleeding edge of capitalism on Twitter @TMFGrgurich. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase.

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