Citigroup has reported 17% fall in its net income for the second quarter of this year due to a decline in banking revenue.

It earned a net income of $4bn in the April-June quarter compared to $4.8bn in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.

Citi chief executive officer Michael Corbat said: “These results demonstrate our ability to generate solid earnings in a challenging and volatile environment, again highlighting the resilience of our institution.”

The bank’s revenue fell 10% to $17.5bn in the quarter as it continues to with the sale of its assets in Citi Holdings.

However, its operating expenses dropped 5% to $10.4bn due to lower expenses of Citi Holdings.

Corbat said: “Nearly all of our net income came from our core businesses and we continued to reduce non-core assets in Citi Holdings. We significantly improved our efficiency ratio, return on assets and return on tangible common equity from the first quarter.

“We also grew loans in both our consumer and institutional businesses, reduced expenses, and utilized additional deferred tax assets, bringing the total utilized to $10bn over the last four years. This utilization fuels our ability to generate regulatory capital and, with the Fed's non-objection to our capital plan, I am pleased that we will significantly increase the amount of capital returned to our shareholders over the next year."

The lender witnessed 2% growth in its loans in the June quarter in constant currency terms, while its deposits went up by 3% to $938bn.

Citigroup’s provisions for bad loans also declined to $12.3bn against $14.1bn in the same quarter in the previous year.

Citicorp, the company's unit that operates its core businesses in consumer banking, credit cards and institutional client services, saw a 3% decrease in its revenue to $16.7bn. Its net income fell 13% to $3.9bn.

Citi Holdings’ revenue plunged 57% to $843bn, led by the sale of non-core assets. The unit’s assets declined 47% to $66bn on year-over-year basis.


Image: Citigroup Centre, Sydney. Photo courtesy of Paulscf/Wikipedia.