Citigroup (C) 01 (May 08 - Nov 08)

[kennynah]

understand....that interest components is accrued as receivables...but what i was alluding to is the creative account process by which these banks may choose to creatively lower their losses due to credit defaults and to downplay the impact on their profits,...in any way possible...

[LenaHuat]

This securitization is the pixie in banks' balance sheets/income statements. This MTM practice is juz like some mafia-like modus operandi where parties are asked to value each others' fighters. When the debts are securitized, both the balance sheet and income statement are inflated. There is so much art in accounting/financial engineering for US banks that I wouldn't think of buying most of them.

[kennynah]

Citi reportedly to halt some foreclosures - Quick Facts
11/10/2008 11:52 PM ET

(RTTNews) - Citigroup Inc. (C: News ) said it will halt certain foreclosures as the company modifies about $20 billion in mortgages, media reported on Tuesday.

The reports noted that the bank plans to reach out to 500 thousand homeowners in the next six months who may be at risk of falling behind on mortgage payments.

According to the reports, Citigroup, in a statement, said that it plans to reach out to loan holders working with the bank, who live in their homes, and have 'sufficient income for affordable mortgage payments.'

[iam802]

Citi Will Halt Some Foreclosures, Rework Mortgages

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the fourth-biggest U.S. bank by market value, said it will halt certain foreclosures as the firm modifies about $20 billion in mortgages, following similar moves by its largest rivals.

The bank plans to reach out to 500,000 homeowners in the next six months who may be at risk of falling behind on mortgage payments, the New York-based firm said in a statement. The bank has helped about 370,000 people, or $35 billion in mortgages, avoid foreclosure since 2007.

Congress has been urging financial-services companies to work with borrowers and avoid foreclosures, which rose to the highest on record in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Oct. 31 it will stop foreclosure on some loans as it works to make payments easier on $110 billion of problem mortgages, while Bank of America Corp. said it has modified 226,000 loans this year, including those from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Citigroup said it's trying to help customers keep their homes ``in today's economic environment,'' according to Sanjiv Das, chief executive officer of the bank's mortgage unit.

Citigroup said on an Oct. 16 conference call that it was in its sixth consecutive quarter of increasing losses on the mortgage portfolio. The bank had restructured more than 120,000 loans including granting extensions and other modifications in the first six months of the year, Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said on the call.

Default Notices

A total of 765,558 U.S. properties got a default notice, were warned of a pending auction or were foreclosed on in the third quarter, the most since records began in January 2005, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac, which sells default data.

``Citi is focusing particularly on borrowers in areas that are likely to face extreme economic distress,'' the release said.

Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in July at the fastest pace on record, and sales of previously owned homes in August were 32 percent below the peak of September 2005.

Citigroup plans to reach out to loan holders working with the bank, who live in their homes, and have ``sufficient income for affordable mortgage payments,'' the statement said. The bank will extend a moratorium on foreclosures to those who meet these criteria.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair has proposed a plan to guarantee mortgages to help stem foreclosures, according to two congressional aides briefed on the matter. Her idea is to use as much as $50 billion of the $700 billion financial-services industry bailout package approved by lawmakers.

JPMorgan's Program

The JPMorgan program is expected to help 400,000 families with $70 billion in loans in the next two years, the bank said. An additional 250,000 families with $40 billion in mortgages have already been helped under existing loan-modification programs.

The bank's program extends to customers of Washington Mutual Inc., the savings and loan JPMorgan agreed to buy in September, and to clients of EMC, the loan-servicing company the bank acquired in its takeover of Bear Stearns Cos.

JPMorgan will hire 300 loan counselors to help delinquent homeowners and employ about 150 people to review each mortgage before it's sent to the foreclosure process. Other employees will be added to staff 24 new regional counseling centers.

Bank of America announced two plans this year to help reduce customers' payments by as much as $11 billion, including Countrywide borrowers. In total, they will cover more than $120 billion in unpaid balances.

Countrywide, the mortgage lender acquired by Bank of America, agreed in October to help about 400,000 customers facing foreclosure or having problems paying their loans as part of settlement with 14 states over fraud complaints.

Citigroup will also give 14 communities as much as $100,000 each to help restore abandoned homes and those in low-income neighborhoods.

[kennynah]

now ~$10.40.....wah liao eh.....broken down from a trend line support at about $11.30

[kennynah]

C is almost $10.......got balls to buy it?

[mocca_com]

what happen to citigroup.. now 8.78? why is there a sell down?

[kennynah]

i'll ask vikram later at tea.....tell u why after that....

technically, c is gone....broke all supports....n is now free falling...

[blid2def]

Next time Meredith Whitney open mouth, better pay attention liao. Wahlao... scary berry her mouth.

[iam802]

Worst May Be Yet to Come for Citigroup

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/busin ... nted=print

After a year of red ink, a months-long plunge in its share price and a $25 billion government rescue, you might think the worst was over for Citigroup.

It is probably not.

Citigroup, which a decade ago set out to rewrite the rules of American finance, is bracing for still more pain now that a recession is at hand. Loans that the financial giant made to consumers in good times are going bad in growing numbers. For the moment, profits seem as elusive as ever, analysts say.

Once the most valuable financial company in America, Citigroup is withering along with its share price, which this week sank into single digits for the first time in a dozen years. The company is also shrinking in another painful way: by cutting, and cutting, and cutting jobs. Another round of pink slips is expected next week.

As Vikram S. Pandit completes his first year as chief executive, many analysts say Citigroup has lost its way. Insiders say the company is racked by office politics at a critical moment in its history.

Mr. Pandit is struggling to regain his grip on the company, which operates in scores of countries, after his attempt to buy Wachovia was upended by Wells Fargo. That misstep left Citigroup grasping for a new strategy to lure deposits and build up its branch network in the United States.

“Citi doesn’t have a credible management team, they don’t have a credible board,” said Christopher Whalen, managing partner at Institutional Risk Analytics. “If you look at their loss rate, it is almost inevitable that Citi is going to be asking the government for more money next year.”

Worries about Citigroup’s future were apparent in the stock market on Thursday. While the share prices of many of its rivals soared along with the broader market in a stunning afternoon rally, Citigroup’s stock fell nearly 2 percent by the end of regular trading. At its closing price of $9.45, the stock has lost almost 68 percent this year, making it the third-biggest loser in the Dow Jones industrial average, behind Alcoa and General Motors.

Many Citigroup employees know their jobs are on the line. Executives said that as of the third quarter, the bank had announced plans to eliminate 40,100 jobs. That includes reductions resulting from the divestitures of the company’s German retail banking operations and its Indian outsourcing franchise.

But Citigroup still needs to hand out pink slips to 9,100 workers to meet its goals, and bankers are bracing for much of the bad news to arrive early next week, according to executives briefed on the situation.

Investment bankers are expected to bear the brunt of the cuts because senior managers have been asked to reduce expenses significantly. But back-office functions, like the bank’s legal and human resources divisions, are also expected to be hard hit.

The ax could keep falling. While there are no formal plans for further job cuts, executives say it is possible that Citigroup could shed an additional 25 percent of its work force by the end of next year. Such a reduction would include layoffs, a hiring freeze and work force reductions related to businesses that the company is considering selling. Such a move would reduce the total number of employees to 264,000, from about 352,000 today.

Christina Pretto, a Citigroup spokeswoman, said that the bank was carefully managing its employee levels as it revamps the company to operate more efficiently in the current downturn. “Nothing has changed,” Ms. Pretto said.

Citigroup is also grappling with how to position its domestic consumer business, which faces rising loan losses and, analysts say, lacks the leadership and strategy it needs. Having lost Wachovia, Citigroup must now try to stitch together a group of small regional banks to catch up with Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Executives are looking at Chevy Chase Bank, a small lender in Maryland with $14 billion in assets, among several other institutions, according to people close to the situation.

But assembling a large franchise could take years, and digesting deals has never been one of Citigroup’s strengths.

Even with all these problems, Citigroup’s board has been bickering over seemingly small issues, including which white-shoe law firm will represent it, according to a person close to the situation. Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz had been representing the board, but that firm is representing Well Fargo in litigation over the Wachovia deal. Cravath, Swain & Moore is now being considered to represent Citigroup’s directors, but no decision has been made, according to a person close to the situation.

Citigroup has tried to put on a united front amid the turmoil. Richard D. Parsons, one of the company’s most outspoken directors, said on Thursday that the board was fully behind Mr. Pandit and Winfried F. W. Bischoff, its executive chairman, as it braced for a difficult 2009.

Mr. Pandit, for his part, led a group of Citigroup executives in buying 1.3 million Citigroup shares as the stock tumbled on Thursday.

It was the first time that Mr. Pandit, who had collected $165.2 million from selling his hedge fund to Citigroup before becoming chief executive, publicly disclosed using his own money to buy Citigroup stock.

Ms. Pretto, the Citigroup spokeswoman, said the “purchases reflect their belief in the long-term strength and growth opportunities of the company.”