Citigroup posts $7.6 bn loss in Q4

Banking behemoth Citigroup has reported a loss of $7.6 billion for the three months ended December 2009, mainly on account of expenses related to repayment of bailout funds.

However, Citi's India-born Chief Vikram Pandit said it witnessed "enormous progress" in its restructuring efforts. Excluding the charges related to repayment of bailout funds, the entity recorded a loss of $1.4 billion for the December quarter, it said in a statement today.

In the year-ago period, Citi, battered by the financial crisis, had a fourth quarter loss of $8.29 billion. "We have made enormous progress in 2009," Pandit said. "We created Citi Holdings to rationalise non-strategic businesses, totally overhauled risk management, cut costs by over $13 billion annually, reduced headcount by 100,000, reduced assets by $500 billion from peak levels," he noted.

Citi incurred charges to the tune of $6.2 billion associated with paying back Federal funds worth $20 billion and exiting loss-sharing agreement with the government. Citigroup had split itself into two -- Citicorp and Citi Holdings.

In the fourth quarter, Citicorp had a loss of $1.7 billion while Citi Holdings lost $2.5 billion.

For 2009, Citi posted a loss of $1.6 billion. "While the environment continues to be challenging, we have a strong capital base and client franchise... we continue to see indications that credit may be stabilising or improving particularly in Asia and Latin America," Citi's CFO John Gerspach said.

Citi raked in fourth quarter revenues to the tune of $5.4 billion including expenses related to repayment of Federal funds.

Net credit losses fell to $7.1 billion in three months ended December, down by 0.8 billion from previous quarter.

In the fourth quarter, revenues from Asia Regional Consumer Banking (RCB) stood at $1.8 billion, up by 6 per cent on a sequential basis.

The rise was mainly driven by increasing investment sales and loan and deposit volumes within retail banking, as well as increasing purchase sales and loan volumes within cards.

At the end of 2009, Citigroup had assets worth $1.9 trillion.

Striking an optimistic note, Pandit said, "As we enter 2010, we are strongly capitalised, significantly more efficient, and are executing on a clear strategy that is focused on clients."

With the economic situation picking up, most of the banking entities are seeing better business. Last week, JP Morgan recorded profits to the tune of $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.