Vikram Pandit received criticism for his co-chairing of Davos 2012.  Mike Mayo, an analyst with Crédit Agricole in New York, was quoted as saying: "What kind of signal does that send, that the bank that was the worst-performing in our country over the last decade and whose stock price is still down significantly since he took over, is the ambassador for our financial industry?"  At Davos 2012, Pandit declared that Citigroup was going "back to the basics of banking" in response to the public’s outrage in response to the financial crisis. Pandit said, "The single biggest issue facing us is the question of jobs."

Departure from Citigroup

On 16 October 2012, Pandit tendered his resignation as Citigroup CEO. Michael Corbat, formerly Citigroup's CEO of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, was appointed as his replacement.  While Pandit and Citigroup say that he left the firm willingly, some unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg News claimed that Pandit was forced to leave by the board after dwindling investor confidence and deteriorating relations with regulators over a long time. The New York Times later asserted that Chairman Michael E. O'Neill was the principal force behind a prolonged, hidden effort to force Pandit out, leading to an unexpected ultimatum to Pandit, telling him that he had to resign at the end of the year, or be fired. His resignation followed numerous investor payouts amidst ongoing fraud allegations.

In May 2013, Vikram Pandit, along with Hari Aiyar, another Indian executive, reportedly acquired a 3 percent equity stake in JM Financial and started a $100 million fund for investing in distressed assets. In May 2016  Pandit and Atairos Group reportedly launched a new company, The Orogen Group, for investments in financial services firms, with support from Comcast Corporation.