Citi to boost proprietary trading unit-Bloomberg

March 16 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc plans to bolster its proprietary trading unit following the departure of eight employees owing to the U.S. government's proposal to ban banks from trading stocks with their own money, Bloomberg said, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Kevin Russell, head of Americas stock trading, told employees and securities firms supporting the unit that Citigroup may increase the group's trading limits and capital, the Bloomberg report said.

It said Citigroup is trying to preserve the unit, which produces about $100 million of annual revenue, as banks face a proposed ban on proprietary trading dubbed by President Obama as the Volcker Rule.

The Volcker Rule would explicitly ban banks from buying and selling investments for their own books unrelated to customer accounts.

The Bloomberg report said Citigroup will replace some or all of the six portfolio managers and analysts who left since trader Matt Carpenter quit in February.

The traders, Matt Carpenter and Matt Newton, ran a proprietary trading unit for Citigroup, which has been under the thumb of regulators since it received a series of government bailouts.

Citigroup could not be immediately reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Amulya Nagaraj in Bangalore; Editing by Anshuman Daga) ) Keywords: CITIGROUP/PROPRIETARYTRADINGUNIT ([e-mail]; within U.S. [phone]; outside U.S. [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.