Citigroup posts $5.11 bln loss, to cut 9,000 jobs

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: Guardian

NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc posted its second straight quarterly loss on Friday, hurt by more than $16 billion of write-downs and costs related to credit losses, and said it will cut another 9,000 jobs.
Though the $5.11 billion first-quarter loss was larger than expected, analysts and investors expressed optimism that the largest U.S. bank and its new chief executive, Vikram Pandit, were taking necessary steps to move past credit problems and drive down costs.
Citigroup shares rose $2.22, or 9.2 percent, to $26.25 in premarket electronic trading.
"It's a cathartic quarter," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co in Boston. "Vikram Pandit is coming in and making pretty big changes."
Citigroup's net loss totaled $1.02 per share, and compared with a year-earlier profit of $5.01 billion, or $1.01 per share. Revenue fell 48 percent to $13.22 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 96 cents per share on revenue of $14.35 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
"We're not happy with our financial results this quarter," Pandit said on a conference call. Nevertheless, he said his confidence in Citigroup's future is "extremely high."
The job cuts are in addition to 4,200 announced in the previous quarter. Citigroup said it ended March with about 369,000 employees.
Pandit is trying to focus on stronger businesses and oncutting costs, including jobs, after years of underinvestment and questionable risk management left New York-based Citigroup bearing the full brunt of the global credit market crisis.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7471605

[NewJeffCT]

1. and the executives will get huge bonuses for cutting expenses

I'm guessing.

[ut oh]

9. That is the first thing I thought

as well...

You know things are wrong when some exec is probably going to get multiple years equivalent of the person's salary of whom they laid-off as bonus...

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. I noticed a sea change at my bank this month (Citibank)

I've complained to the manager several times about their mandatory holding period of 5 days for checks. I often go a long time between checks, so when I get one, I am under a lot of pressure to pay bills and they put this "mandatory" hold on the funds even when I know the funds have cleared. Well, I complained about 5 times last year about this and the bank manager was unwilling to allow me access to funds no matter how pressing my needs were.

Flash forward to last week. They made money available to me for two checks ($6000) at the moment of deposit! No mandatory hold! I was shocked. I looked back at the manager's office (glass walls) and he smiled and nodded. I was even more shocked.

Looks like they finally decided they want to keep their customers. Now I know why.

[ut oh]

10. I can imagine....

I cancelled my citibank accounts this year due to their predatory practices and insensitivity to their customers. Took f'ing 2 months for it to be closed though, cause they kept f'ing up and claiming I owed them money (when in fact as it turns out they owed me money....)

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. oh.....sooooo sad....

This news comes as the House Finance comm. was holding a round of hearings yesterday about credit card companies ripping off card holders, retroactively setting rates as high as 30% for balances owed.
And just this a.m. I noticed web ads from credit card companies "warning" customers that proposed legislation ( which will curb rates) will "make credit more expensive".
Funny, they seem to have plenty of money for scare ads.

Remind me to feel sorry for Citibank some day soon....:nopity:

[paparush]

4. And why the hell is the Dow at 12,800 this morning?

I'll never understand economics.

I heard Google released good numbers. Maybe that's it.

-----------------

On edit..ok, now I see. Citigroup posted a $10Bn dollar loss in the last quarter, so this mere $5Bn dollar loss is actually GOOD news. Now I completely understand a big jump. :sarcasm:

[CountAllVotes]

5. lol!

I was just going to post, "and the DOW surges on this fine news!". :rofl:

:dem:

[joeglow3]

7. The market is WAAAAY ahead of this news

Most of this stuff has been taken into account already. Google is driving it up right now.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. The Feds just gave $25 billion to the financial markets

That moves it every time.

[customerserviceguy]

16. The stock market

is nothing but legalized gambling. I have all my 401K money in bond funds that have large holdings in gov't bonds. No, I'm not going to make megabucks, but I'm not going to lose my ass, either.

[JohnnyCougar]

19. Citi's losses were better than estimates.

That's why the market was up. The price was already lower because investors were betting on the losses being worse.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Bill Clinton helped to get Citigroup started.

Bill Clinton and the Wall of Me

Billionaire Sanford I. Weill, who according to Louis Uchitelle made "Citigroup into the most powerful financial institution since the House of Morgan a century ago," has what I call the Wall of Me leading to his office, which he has decorated with tributes to him, including a dozen framed magazine covers. A major trophy is the pen Bill Clinton used to sign the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a move which allowed Weill to create Citigroup. Fittingly, Citigroup is a major contributor to guess which current Democratic Presidential candidate?
>>>>>snip
http://www.progressivehistorians.com/2007/11/bill-clintons-role-in-mortgage-crisis.html

[Javaman]

11. but but but...

the moron from jp morgan said everything is going to be okay now!!!

[OhioChick]

12. More CEO's and Execs

Lining their pockets while laying off 9,000.

[TheFarseer]

13. That's GREAT news!!!!

At least judging from how the stock went way up, it must have been.

[bluesmail]

14. Dominoes anyone?

[Deja Q]

15. Tiddlywinks, surely?

[bluesmail]

18. huh? I don't get it.

[nichomachus]

17. Yeah, but they'll get even better jobs -- Paul Krugman says so

[Faux pas]

20. Does that mean that my poor Alzheimered mom will quit getting

5-10 phone calls a day for the measly $1,400 she owes Shell gasoline from 3 years ago? I hope so, getting tired of monitoring calls around here.