BANKING

BANKING

Citi to Split Consumer, Card Units

Citigroup said it will split its consumer banking unit from its credit card business as part of a broad reorganization.

The company named Teresa A. Dial, 58, global head of consumer strategy and chief executive of consumer banking in North America. That business will operate separately from Citigroup's U.S. credit card operations, which the bank folded into a global cards unit, led by Steven Freiberg.

ADVERTISING

Wal-Mart Asked to Retract Claim

The advertising industry's self-regulatory body said Wal-Mart should change its advertising to avoid suggesting that its shoppers save an annual $2,500 per family.

But the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, in its report, accepted Wal-Mart's claim that its efficiency and size drive down consumer prices across the economy, generating that $2,500 savings regardless of where consumers shop.

Wal-Mart said that it never meant to imply the savings were only for Wal-Mart shoppers.

PHARMACEUTICALS

Senator Seeks Data on Vytorin

Merck and Schering-Plough are being asked by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) to supply marketing budgets and other information involving the cholesterol pill Vytorin. The request from Grassley, ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, came a day after the companies reported that Vytorin, which combines Schering-Plough's Zetia drug and Merck's Zocor, was no more effective than Zocor alone. Zocor is sold in generic form for a fifth of the price of Vytorin.

Federal and state officials have been investigating why the results were not released for nearly two years after the study ended. The companies have also been chided for their aggressive marketing of the drug in the interim.

Representatives for both drugmakers said the letter is one in a series from Grassley's committee and that their companies are cooperating fully.

CONSUMER SAFETY