Citi posts $7.6 billion 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 on Tuesday.

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.