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Citigroup Seeks Program to Allow Employees to Add to Their 401(k)s

MAR. 8, 2000

Citigroup Seeks Program to Allow Employees to Add to Their 401(k)s

DATED MAR. 8, 2000
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=============== SUMMARY ===============

 

Sanford I. Weill of Citigroup Inc., New York, has asked Treasury, to approve a program his company would like to implement for lower-paid employees. Under the program, those employees would be able to add to their retirement savings by placing stock options in their 401(k) accounts. According to Weill, an IRS ruling on the program has been at Treasury for five months, and to his knowledge, the Department does not have any problem with it.

 

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March 8, 2000

 

 

The Honorable Lawrence H. Summers

 

Secretary of the Treasury

 

U.S. Department of the Treasury

 

Washington, D.C. 20220

 

 

Dear Larry,

[1] It was good to see you last night, and I appreciate you taking the time to speak to our group. I wanted to follow up on one issue.

[2] Last night, you mentioned that 70 million Americans do not have pension benefits. I have long been concerned about the retirement security of our employees at the lower end of the salary scale. As I mentioned, we have been working on a program that would basically give lower paid employees the ability to add to their retirement savings by putting stock options in their 401(k) accounts.

[3] We have been working patiently to get this program approved by the IRS for almost four years. The Department of Labor has previously supported the concept and, as I mentioned, Secretary Herman said she would approve it in a week. I am told that the people at the IRS (e.g., Carol Gold) who have worked on the ruling for this program support it. Now the draft ruling has been at the Treasury for five months, and as far as we know Treasury has not raised any policy issues.

[4] If Treasury has any substantive concerns, I would be happy to have my tax and pension experts sit down with Jon Talisman to address them, but I would hate to see more delays. I will ask Irwin Ettinger, our Chief Accounting and Tax Officer, to follow up with Mr. Talisman's office and would appreciate anything you could do to give this matter a fair hearing.

[5] Thank you for your help. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Sincerely,

 

 

* * *

 

Citigroup Inc.

 

New York, New York

 

 

cc: Sheryl Sandberg
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