FDIC Announces Citigroup to Buy Wachovia

By Binyamin Appelbaum, Neil Irwin and Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writers

Citigroup has agreed to buy Wachovia bank in a deal backstopped by taxpayers and brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to avoid another major corporate failure in the midst of the ongoing financial crisis.

Citigroup will pay the Charlotte-based Wachovia about $2.16 billion, or $1 per share, for its banking operations. Wachovia will retain its wealth management and brokerage operations.

The deal boosts Citigroup as a third rival for Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase in the new category of financial behemoths that are emerging from the current financial crisis. Those three banks will now control almost a third of the nation's deposits.

FDIC Announces Citigroup to Buy Wachovia....