Josef Ackermann, Chief Executive of Deutsche Bank, has turned down an approach from Citigroup about taking the CEO job vacated last month by Charles Prince, the Financial Times reported.
Ackermann told the world's biggest bank he was "not available" when asked whether he would be interested in becoming CEO and chairman of Citigroup, the FT said in its online edition on Tuesday, citing someone familiar with the matter.
Deutsche Bank and Citigroup declined to comment.
Ackermann told reporters last month he was happy in Germany, when asked whether he might consider becoming CEO of Citigroup or Merrill Lynch , whose CEO also left as a result of the subprime mortgages meltdown.
The leading candidate to become Citigroup's next CEO is Vikram Pandit, a former Morgan Stanley executive who now heads Citigroup's institutional business, the FT said, citing someone close to the process.
The paper said one option would be for former U.S. treasury secretary Robert Rubin, who stepped in as chairman when Prince resigned, to stay on as chairman with Pandit as CEO.
Other names that have been discussed by the search committee are Dick Kovacevich, chairman of mortgage lender Wells Fargo , and Fred Goodwin, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, the FT said.
But the newspaper said neither would be interested, citing people familiar with their thinking.