CitiMortgage CEO Sanjiv Das helps people keep their homes

— -- There is very little in Sanjiv Das' uncluttered office.

Just snapshots of his wife and his 20-year-old daughter, Natasha. No pictures of his favorite sports: golf and cricket.

Das has moved around the world, run credit card acquisitions for American Express in India, and handled the mortgage business for Citibank in Sydney. But none of it compares to what he's doing now.

His spartan office shows Das hasn't even had time to personalize his space. Most of his spare time is invested in his job as CEO and president of CitiMortgage.

Just eight months ago, Das found himself charged with motivating 10,000 employees and revitalizing a franchise caught in the throes of one of the biggest housing crises to hit the USA.

It's the riskiest thing Das says he has ever done.

"The single biggest issue I face is to be able to deal with this onslaught of unemployment and negative sentiment (toward banks) out there that none of us control," says Das, 47. "We all feel, in our own small way, if we can ebb the tide, it will go toward turning around the economy of this great country, and belief in the housing market and trust in the banking system."

That would also benefit CitiMortgage's parent company, Citigroup, which has received $45 billion in financial rescue funds from the government since last fall, and whose health remains a worry on Wall Street.

As the head of CitiMortgage, Das says one of his goals is to bolster employee morale during a time of intense business demand and shrinking public respect toward financial institutions.

Another goal: to do what he can to avert some of the foreclosures crippling the housing market. Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 803,489 properties in the first quarter, an increase of nearly 24% from the first quarter of 2008, according to RealtyTrac. One in every 159 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

About 3.7% of Citi-serviced loans were 90 days or more past due at the end of 2008.