Mumbai: The tagline was 'Citi never sleeps'. Now, neither do its employees.

A day after announcing job cuts, which it said would have little impact in India, Citi India has shown the door to 37 of its senior employees.

The pink slips were given to a number of veterans in the retail banking team, while investment banking, treasury, and Citi's global transaction business have also seen some actions. Citi is reported to have given a three-month notice, plus a month's salary for every completed year of service to these employees.

Citi India's top man Sanjay Nayar, too, has moved on from the bank to private equity firm KKR, leaving his position vacant for Mark Robinson, an expatriate.

Reports suggest that banking industry sources think this could be only a taste of what is in store, with a possible shakeout in the offing. The US media has been rife with reports that the bank is in deep trouble, and is desperately seeking options, including selling parts of the company or a possible merger with another firm, since its stock value evaporated by 50 per cent during this week.

Outgoing Citi stalwart Nayar was quoted in the media as saying that the number of actions that would be seen in India would be minimal, even as the bank hires around 45 students from the Indian Institutes of Management and other business schools this year. However, that has failed to stop the shockwave from rippling out in the bank's retail banking division, since a number of those handed the pink slips were vice presidents or above.

Reports suggested that another 25 Citi bankers would be asked to leave during the next quarter. Also, the action would most likely shift to Citi Financial, formerly called The Associates, which is Citi's non-banking finance arm that mainly provides retail consumer loans. A downsizing at the lender is reported to be likely during the coming months, with the subsidiary already having pruned its workforce by 600 so far this year.

Media reports also say that Citi would lay off more than 1,000 employees in India, around 10 per cent of its roughly 10,000 employee base here. The Wall Street Journal reported that the majority job cuts in India will come from Citi Financial.

Citi has already seen a massive drop in its headcount, having sold its captive BPO arm Citigroup Global Services (CGSL) to software giant TCS around a month ago. CGSL had around 12,000 employees.