Citibank posts 24% rise in total revenues

Citibank India today announced that it has reported total revenues of Rs 10,423 crores for the year ended March 31, 2009, representing a 24 per cent increase from Rs 8,410 crore for the same period last year.

The growth in revenues was attributable both to higher interest income as well as significant growth in fee and trading income. On March 31, 2009, the balance sheet grew by 26 per cent from Rs 83,851 crores to Rs 105,264 crores, reflecting continuing growth in customer lending activities.

Net profit after tax was Rs 2,173 crores for the period, representing a 20 per cent increase from Rs 1,804 crores in the same period of last year.

In addition to Citibank with 40 branches in 28 locations in India, Citi operates several other legal vehicles, including mainly two large non-bank finance companies, two brokerage companies and two other companies undertaking capital markets activities.

All of these vehicles remained profitable during the year, with the exception of Citifinancial Consumer Finance India Limited, which was impacted by the challenges of deterioration in unsecured credit quality that affected the entire industry and, Citi Wealth Advisors Private Limited which is yet to reach full scale of operations.

Mark T Robinson, CEO, Citi South Asia, said: "Notwithstanding the slowdown in the local economic environment arising from unprecedented turmoil in global markets, the strong performance of Citibank India branch underscores our strengths built up over 107 years operating in India. Recognising the credit quality challenges we faced in our unsecured consumer loan portfolio, we were amongst the first in the industry to take corrective action and are pleased with our progress."