Citigroup investors have looked past the bank’s $7bn settlement of a US government probe into the sale of mortgage-backed securities, even as the penalty wiped out almost all its second-quarter profits.
The widely trailed penalty obscured earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, as they showed a smaller decline in trading revenues than the bank had warned of just two months ago and the first profitable quarter for its “bad bank”. Shares in the bank were up 3.3 per cent in lunchtime New York trading.
Citing a “resigned acceptance” among shareholders over the size of the penalty, Mike Mayo, an analyst at CLSA, said yesterday marked “a significant turning point for several of Citi’s major issues”.