Citi to launch stock exchange offers this week

Citigroup Inc. expects to do its previously announced swaps of preferred stock into common stock later this week, the bank said in a statement Monday.

Citigroup originally announced in late February that it wanted to offer investors the option of exchanging preferred stock into common stock. The move would give the U.S. government a 34 percent stake in the New York-based bank.

The deal would also boost Citi's common equity, a benchmark the government is using to measure a bank's ability to manage losses.

The government has …