Citigroup rose 57 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $27.96 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange at 10:03 a.m. The shares had fallen 42% through yesterday, underperforming the 24-company KBW Bank Index, which was down 27%, Bloomberg reported.

Bell declined to comment on whether the bank planned to cut jobs at any of its so-called core businesses, including trading and investment banking.

"It does look like a hiring freeze," said Richard Staite, a London-based analyst at Atlantic Equities LLP, tells Bloomberg when asked about Citi. The analyst, who has an "overweight" recommendation on Citigroup shares, added: "I don't think that's too surprising in what is a very difficult revenue environment for all banks. They clearly face a difficult balancing act."

Citi Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach told analysts in July that expenses for the year would be higher than previous forecasts. Expenses at the bank had risen 8%, to $25.3 billion, in the first half of 2011, compared with a year earlier, and revenue had fallen 15%, to $40.3 billion, including sales at the bank's Citi Holdings unit. The unit has about $300 billion of unwanted businesses and assets. Profit fell 11%, to $6.34 billion.