Hans Angermueller

Mr. Angermueller was the bank’s face to Washington for years, lobbying the government to give a freer rein to an industry still technically forbidden from banking across state lines. He was recruited to Citibank by Chief Executive Walter Wriston in the early ’70s, when Citi had already carved out a reputation as a competitive bank. He talked his way into his first job at the law firm Shearman & Sterling in 1950, when tea was still served in the library at 4 p.m. each day. Mr. Angermueller was armed with both a master’s in engineering and a law degree from Harvard, and had served in the Navy during World War II. He was born in what is now the western Czech Republic and spoke German, so he was drafted to help restructure debt for companies in war-ravaged Germany. Within a few years, he was moved to Shearman’s banking division. In 1979, when the American embassy in Tehran was seized, the U.S. government froze Iranian assets at U.S. banks. According to Mr. Angermueller, he helped draw up a plan where Citigroup and other banks effectively started putting liens on Iranian assets in Europe as well. The move helped force Iran’s hand in the hostage negotiations, and Mr. Angermueller wrote the telex sent to Iran to hammer out a deal. Mr. Angermueller was in the running to be Citi CEO, but was edged out by John Reed in 1984. Mr. Reed gave Mr. Wriston’s old office to Mr. Angermueller. He retired from Citi in 1989, and returned to Shearman & Sterling.