Political India: Engaging America

Resuscitating its flagging credit card business, Citi said that although its core revenue fell during the same period its latest income figures included a $1.9 billion accounting gain related to its credit holdings. The profit growth, at 84 cents a share, beat analyst expectations which were closer to 81 cents a share.

Citi Chief Executive Vikram Pandit was said to be celebrating “another quarter of solid operating results” after reports that he had decided to revive the group's “private-label credit cards business, which had been slated for disposal”. Citigroup accepted a total of $45 billion from the Treasury to shore up its debilitated balance sheet during the worst of the financial crisis in 2008. Of that assistance, it repaid $20 billion and the balance of $25 billion was converted into common shares held by the Treasury. Being one of the seven U.S. corporations that received support through the Troubled Asset Recovery Programme, Citigroup was subject to executive compensation controls, which were, however, lifted after the U.S. Treasury offloaded the last of its stake in the company towards the end of last year. The sale of the Citi stake fetched the American taxpayer close to $12 billion in profits.