TARP money prevents Citi to hire more employees

On Monday speaking at a forum sponsored by Time Warner Inc chairman of Citigroup Inc Richard Parsons said that it will likely be very difficult for the bank to hire more employees in view of the dependence on the taxpayer money. $45 billion was granted to Citi from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, and Parsons said there is no timetable for possible repayment.

"I do worry we could be competitively disadvantaged if we aren't able to find a way to quickly repay TARP," Parsons said.

As is known Citi was not among those ten financial institutions approved by the government to repay the bailout funds after the completion of stress tests. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley were among these 10 companies. Bank of America Corp, which also took $45 billion, was not.

Parsons mentioned a capital plan that was filed with the government. Under this plan Citi suggests its strategy to repay TARP infusions. The details of the plan were not disclosed by Parsons who said "so much of it will depend on the cooperation of the markets."

Meantime parsons noted that Citigroup is now better-positioned to withstand another economic downturn.

"We can, but I hope we don't have to," he said.