Vikram Pandit Sees Some Near Term Credit Worries, Good Long Term Profitability Prospects

Vikram Pandit said in an interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo that a lot of hard work has been done by Citigroup (NYSE: C) to put its capital position in a very good order. He added that Citigroup (C) has a leverage of 12:1, $200 billion of liquidity on its balance sheet and $36 billion of reserves.

His focus at this point is making sure that Citigroup (C) is profitable as a bank. Vikram Pandit thinks that there are some near term credit problems but in the long term profitability is not a concern. The road to profitability is through strong operating businesses in Citicorp and the efforts that have been made to invest in those. Citi also has to keep selling Citi Holdings, and watching jobs is an important factor too. It is all about jobs now, says Vikram Pandit, and adds that it is about mortgages and earning power of operating businesses versus the credit portfolio that Citi is carrying now.

Citi (C) has a good starting position in 2010, long term profitability is clear, and in the near term the whole story is about credit and operating earnings.

He also commented on President Obama's proposals for the banking sector and said that the direction of these proposals is right and Citi is aligned with basic principals.

Vikram Pandit said that Citigroup (C) has same goals as government, outside the payments for some high paid employees, and Citi (C) will do all it can to help government sell its share when they decide to do so.

In the long term Vikram Pandit thinks that the prospects of any bank are going to come out to what business it is in and is it serving its clients.