Citigroup Inc. will present plans to sell as much as $400 billion of extraneous assets a person familiar with the situation said.

Newly-installed chief executive officer Vikram Pandit, scrambling to slash Citi's costs and assets that have been hard hit by the global credit crunch, also intends to reaffirm his promise to cut annual expenses at the largest US bank by roughly 20 per cent, the source told Reuters.

The sales could amount to nearly 20 per cent of Citi's current assets, and according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story on Thursday, would take place over several years.

Although Citi has said previously that it plans to shed assets to improve its capital position, the magnitude of the potential sales struck some analysts as worrisome.

"The only reason you'd sell off that many assets is you have a lot more losses coming than you originally thought," said Jim Huguet, co-chief executive officer at fund manager Great Companies LLC, which does not own Citi shares. Since late last year, Citi has recorded more than $45 billion of writedowns and credit losses, raised more than $40 billion of new capital including $2 billion of preferred shares this week, and slashed its dividend 41 per cent.