Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit on Thursday will endorse a key aspect of President Obama's financial reform proposal known as the Volcker Rule as he testifies before Congress on the financial bailout investments the bank has received.

Banks should operate as banks, focused completely on serving their clients, Pandit said, according to testimony obtained by Politico.

Pandit also supported the idea of a government run financial consumer protection agency. He said he would support a number of architectural frameworks could work.

The controversial Volcker Rule would ban banks from trading on their own behalf and limit the number of acquisitions in the financial industry.

Paul Volcker, one of Obama's chief economic advisers, proposed the ban out of concerns that banks have a conflict of interest when making risky trading bets that could go against clients.

The Obama administration's draft proposal for the rule would ban firms from trading on stocks, bonds, options, commodities, deriviatives or other financial instruments for the company's own trading book and not on behalf of the customer.

Other limits include bans on sponsoring hedge funds, private equity funds or other similar funds exempt from federal registration as well as higher capital requirements and limits on growth above 10 percent of the liabilities of the financial system.

Vikram pandit Citigroup