Citigroup Inc. announced on Monday that it has reduced its third-quarter earnings. This announcement comes a day after CEO Charles Prince said it will resign.

Citigroup shares dropped down 3 percent to $36.58 in pre-market trade due to the latest news.

The company announced today the reducing of its earnings to 44 cents from the initially announced 47 cents on October 15. According to Citigroup, this reduction reflects the lower value of $43 billion in collateralized debt obligations.

In order to revive the company will take an additional $ 8 billion to $ 11 billion write-down related to subprime mortgages, on top of the $ 6.5 billion reported in October.

Robert E. Rubin, 69, was named chairman while the board will search for a chief executive. He is the former Treasury secretary and was named in 1999 as an adviser to Mr. Weill.

The directors named on Sunday Winfried F. W. Bischoff, the head of Citigroup Europe as interim chief.

Naming Mr. Rubin as chairman was an emergency and according to a person quoted by New York Times: “He wants to find somebody as chairman and C.E.O. so he can step down.”

Mr. Rubin said that he is committed to the company but didn’t say for how long he will be chairman.

The company’s board formed a four-member search committee in order to find a new CEO. It will look at both internal and external candidates.

According to Mr. Rubin the committee will be looking for someone “who can relate to the international dimension, deal with complicated issues, and relate to a lot of very strong and smart people.”

Citigroup is expecting to return to normal capital levels by June 2008. The company has no plan of cutting the 54 cents per share quarterly dividend.

The company’s shares dropped 32 percent this year and 17 percent since the naming of Prince as a CEO in October 2003.

Early Monday the shares rose.