Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Citigroup on its way up?

Well, the CEO says for the last two months the bank has operated in a profit. Really? Does this mean the government money helped them? Or is this on their own, for real.

Call me skeptical. I want them to operate in the black, on the up and up, but as long as Citigroup has to take money from us and until they start to repay the money, my verdict is out on Citibank. In other words, they have bad assets on the books and will continue to need propping up.

Embattled Citigroup Inc. surprised Wall Street Tuesday with news that the bank company has operated at a profit in the first two months of the year. But despite the upbeat news, Congress and the Fed continue to review strategies for dealing with a further deterioration of the troubled global banking giant.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Vikram Pandit said late Monday in a memo to employees and clients that during the first two months of this year the bank had its best performance since the third quarter of 2007, when the credit crisis first triggered a wave of losses in the industry.

Pandit's memo said the company had generated $19 billion in revenues in January and February "excluding externally disclosed marks." A Citi spokesman said the company arrived at the profit figure by subtracting $8.1 billion in expenses for the two-month period, along with taxes and any one-time gains or losses. The spokesman did not provide details on those items.



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