Citigroup posted a loss of 27 cents a share this morning, then feebly tried to make it look like a gain. The New York Times was not fooled.
The bank’s headline number — net income of $101 million — came before it accounted for $288 million in preferred dividends and a debt exchange that gave Washington 34 percent
So it’s basically like they looked at the balance of their checking account and were like, ‘Hey, we have all this money!’ when it actually was their rent?
So it’s basically like they looked at the balance of their checking account and were like, ‘Hey, we have all this money!’ when it actually was their rent?
The income came from Citi’s trading operations and, ostensibly, the selling off of certain valuable properties, but Citi is still having problems with their basic, day-to-day operations, namely, people are still defaulting on their loans and credit cards. As CEO Vikram Pandit bullshitted in this morning’s press release: “While consumer credit trends are improving in international markets, the U.S. consumer credit environment remains challenging.” This could, of course, potentially be fixed if the company installed customer-service representatives who actually have the power to change interest rates or remove fees or are at the bare minimum moderately reasonable human beings, but Citi so far has been unwilling, it seems, to make such a radical move.
Citi Struggles Even as Other Banks Show Strong Profits [NYT]
Citigroup Reports Third Quarter Net Income of $101 Million [Business Wire via DealBook/NYT]
