CitiFinancial trimming CT branches

Citigroup Inc. will close 376 branches - including nine in Connecticut -- and cut as many as 720 jobs at its CitiFinancial consumer-lending businesses in the U.S. and Canada, under a plan to make the units more attractive to potential buyers, Bloomberg News reports.

The job cuts, disclosed by CitiFinancial Chief Executive Officer Mary McDowell in a Bloomberg interview, represent about 6.4 percent of the unit's total staff in the two countries. CitiFinancial will also convert 182 U.S. branches into "servicing centers" catering to customers who might need loan modifications or other debt restructurings, she said.

CitiFinancial will close nine of its 15 branches in Connecticut, and transform the rest into servicing centers.

A company spokeswoman declined to say how many jobs would be lost in Connecticut.

Bloomfield, Bristol, Manchester, Newington, and Rocky Hill are among Connecticut communities where CitiFinancial has branches, according to the company's web site.

In the U.S., CitiFinancial will cut 500 to 600 jobs as it closes 330 branches, McDowell said. Currently, there are about 9,600 employees in the U.S., she said. Following the branch conversions, the U.S. network would have 1,321 full-service branches, she said.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit has been trying to sell CitiFinancial since January 2009, one of at least 21 businesses the New York-based bank tagged for sale or liquidation after its $45 billion bailout in 2008. The bank, which has sold U.S. and Japanese brokerages, had signaled consumer-lending units saddled with loan losses might be tougher to sell.

The branch cuts "should provide a lot more clarity in terms of potential buyers looking at the full-service network branches, and being able to grow that segment," McDowell said. "We think it does increase the salability and eventually the fundability, because whoever buys CitiFinancial will need to fund it."

CitiFinancial North America, based in Baltimore, has offered personal loans for car repairs, furniture purchases, vacations and medical bills as well as debt-consolidation loans that can be used to pay off credit cards and other bills, according to its website. The unit also refinances mortgages and makes home-equity loans.