(RTTNews) - Citigroup Inc. is likely to announce plans to cut 10% of its workforce in the investment-banking division, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The plan, to be announced possibly on Monday, is part of the company's aggressive measures in response to the current market conditions. The company has about 65,000 employees in its investment-banking division.

The Wall Street Journal report said that entire trading desks in New York and other cities are likely to be eliminated, as they have been rendered obsolete by the credit crunch. The cuts are the first notable action taken by John Havens, who assumed charge of the company's institutional-clients group, which includes the investment bank.

The New York-based bank has suffered $15 billion in losses over the past two quarters and is likely to report further write-downs in the second quarter. The company, which has more than 350 thousand employees around the world, has fired at least 9,000 employees as of March 31.

Last week, Citibank said it expects further subprime-related write-downs in the second quarter. In a Deutsche Bank-sponsored conference call, Garry Crittenden, the Chief Financial Officer of Citibank, said that credit costs, including loan write-offs and reserves for future losses, are likely to exceed the first-quarter levels in the second quarter.

In the first quarter, Citigroup had reported a loss of more than $5 billion in its first quarter, hurt by heavy write-downs and credit costs on sub-prime related exposures. The results included $6.0 billion in pre-tax write-downs and credit costs on sub-prime related direct exposures.

The forecasts came after Citigroup announced the consolidation of its global marketing and communications operations under Lisa Caputo, Chief Marketing Officer, to ensure coordinated and strategic management of communications with external and internal audiences around the world.

Financial institutions worldwide incurred a whopping $396 billion in credit losses since last year, 10% of which was booked by Citigroup. The bank has been severely impacted by the subprime mortgage crisis, watching its stock plunge over 50% and former CEO Charles Prince resign following massive write-downs resulting from the bank's foray into risky mortgages.

Citigroup is on a revival path after its new CEO Vikram Pandit raised $44 billion in capital and set strategies to raise $400 billion through asset-sales. The company has also cut its dividend by over 40% and intends to grow revenues by 9% over the next few years.

C closed Friday's regular trading session at $19.30, down $0.87 or 4.31% on a volume of 151.60 million shares. The stock has been trading in a range of $17.99-$53.60 in the past 52 weeks.