Chuck Prince

By Daniel Kadlec

A long-time Sandy Weill sidekick, Chuck Prince might have got a chance to run Citigroup in any event. But a progression of Citi scandals that began in the dotcom-bubble years with shady Enron dealings and stock touting for troubled telecoms quickened this lawyer's ascent. Prince, 54, landed the CEO job little more than a year ago. Since then, old improprieties have continued to surface, posing new p.r. nightmares-- including Citi's private-banking operation being banned from Japan just a few months ago for failing to guard against money laundering, among other things. To atone, Prince bowed deeply during a press conference in Tokyo. Then Citi's new boss came home and laid down the law during a recent conference call. "This will not continue while I'm in charge," he insisted, referring to the string of ethical breaches.

Prince is backing up his commitment by starting new training, communications and performance- review initiatives--and in the case of Japan, by firing some of the top executives that the legendary Weill had put in place before stepping aside as CEO. At stake is Citi's legacy-- not just as a profit machine ($18 billion in net income on revenues of $77 billion in 2003) and shareholder's delight (the stock has risen far faster than the market since 1986), but also as a dominant global bank that trades on its good reputation as much as on its capital and contacts. Prince calls the Citi brand "a precious thing," and told FORTUNE that "the celebration of financial results causes a few people at the edges" to stray. His challenge: to impose a new culture of ethics while maintaining the aggressiveness that led Citi to its global dominance. --By Daniel Kadlec