What does Vikram Pandit's sudden exit mean?

Vikram Pandit has had a checkered track record during his stint as chief of Citigroup. The ex-CEO of the global bank was named in the list of worst ever American CEOs way back in 2009 itself. This was a little after he took over the reins of the subprime loss hit bank in 2007. He did steer the bank through the rough weather in 2008. However, the results were not to satisfaction. But his exit from the bank yesterday was as unceremonious as his predecessor Charles Prince's. The latter announced his exit in 2007 taking complete responsibility for US$ 14 bn of subprime losses. However, Pandit's sudden exit has been rife with speculations about under performance and bonus issues. Citi's failure to pass the recent stress test by US Fed has been one of the key issues . It may be noted that for much of his tenure, Pandit took a notional US$ 1 salary in line with the bank's austerity motive. But he did so after reaping more than US$ 160 m from the sale of his Old Lane hedge fund to Citi. It is therefore not surprising that the shareholders' of the bank were not willing to dole out big bonus for an average performance. Having said that, the woes of Citi are far from over.