NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc. chief executive officer Vikram Pandit said he will take a salary of $1 and no bonus until the bank, which has accepted $45 billion in government bailout money, returns to profitability.

"I get the new reality and I will make sure Citi gets it as well," Pandit said yesterday in testimony before the US House Financial Services Committee. Lawmakers called eight bank CEOs to Washington to explain how they were using their portion of the government's $350 billion of rescue funds to boost credit.

Citigroup and the nation's biggest banks have come under fire from lawmakers who criticised bonus payments and corporate expenses such as new executive jets at a time when the government was giving them billions to revive the economy. President Barack Obama last month called the bonuses "shameful" and the "height of irresponsibility."

JPMorgan Chase & Co's Jamie Dimon, Morgan Stanley's John Mack, and Bank of America Corp.'s Kenneth Lewis were among the other CEOs at yesterday's hearing who won't receive a bonus for 2008.

Lewis was asked at a shareholder meeting in December if he would work for $1 a year for the next three years. He said, "No", and pointed out that Bank of America earned $5.8 billion during the first nine months of 2008. New York-based Citigroup has reported five straight quarters of losses linked to the collapse of the mortgage markets and the global credit contraction.

Mack said at the hearing that he was concerned pay restrictions imposed in connection with government money will erode Morgan Stanley's ability to retain executives, especially in Europe. "At the most senior levels, I'm not as concerned," Mack, 64, said. "The levels below that, we are seeing it already, with some of our European managing directors."

Chief executives at companies outside the finance industry, including Rick Wagoner of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.'s Alan Mulally, have also agreed to work for $1 a year.