Wriston, Walter Bigelow

▪ 2006

      American banker (b. Aug. 3, 1919, Middletown, Conn.—d. Jan. 19, 2005, New York, N.Y.), as head of the banking company now known as Citigroup, transformed the American banking industry through a series of innovations in financing and technology. Wriston began his career at what was then the National City Bank of New York in 1946 as an inspector in the controller's office. By 1960 he had become executive vice president of (since a 1955 merger) the First National City Bank of New York. The following year he introduced negotiable certificates of deposit to offer a higher interest rate to corporations. Wriston became president of the bank in 1967, the same year the bank became the largest one in New York. The following year he reorganized the company into five organizations under a holding company, an innovation that allowed it to engage in an array of financial services forbidden to banks. In 1970 Wriston became chairman of the bank (renamed Citibank in 1976) and the holding company (named Citicorp in 1974). He engaged in aggressive international expansion and diversification; one revolutionary innovation was the introduction of the automated teller machine (ATM). Wriston retired in 1984 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004.

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