If there's one thing that bank investors can take away from the terrible experience of the financial meltdown, it's that management is a very big deal. Banks like Wells Fargo (WFC 1.98%) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM 0.67%) took a more conservative approach to the market in the pre-crisis days, and that paid off as they didn't face the massive losses that competitors did. With the clear exception of JPMorgan's "London Whale" debacle, both banks are nicely positioned today.
Meanwhile, Bank of America's (BAC 2.61%) crisis-era management -- with Ken Lewis at the helm -- arranged the disastrous acquisitions of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Both buys have "paid off" in the form of credit-related losses and seemingly unending lawsuits.
With this in mind, what should investors make of Citigroup's (C 1.66%) current management? There's a fresh face in the CEO spot with Michael Corbat recently taking over for Vikram Pandit. Is that good news? In the video below, I discuss Citi's management picture in greater detail.
