Citigroup talking to U.S. government

By Dan Wilchins and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup has begun talks with the U.S. government as its plummeting share price raises doubts about the bank's ability to survive, a person familiar with the matter said.

The bank has met with officials from the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department in recent days to discuss its options, which include an endorsement from the government and another capital injection from the Treasury, the person said, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

The bank's management has also internally discussed selling off units or finding another bank to merge with. But it is not clear if anything short of capital from the government will soothe markets that are increasingly questioning whether Citigroup has enough capital to withstand the recession, the person said.

Citigroup spokeswoman Christina Pretto declined to comment.

Citigroup's shares lost 20 percent of their value on Friday, closing at $3.77, down 60 percent for the week and reaching their lowest level since December 1992

"It's fear and panic at this point," said Gerard Cassidy, a banking analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Portland, Maine. "Investors have seen similar movies this year, and the endings are very unpleasant."

Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, working hard to regain employee confidence on Friday, said on a company-wide conference call that the bank does not want to change its business model and plans to keep its Smith Barney brokerage, despite news reports to the contrary.

He also said Citigroup had a solid capital position, and that employees should not focus on the bank's falling share price because that is not what regulators and credit rating agencies worry about, the people said.