Shares climbed in New York. On a per share basis, the bank earned $1.51, compared with 3 cents a share a year earlier. That compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $1.34 in EPS on $19.11 billion in revenue.
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“Through active expense and balance sheet discipline, we are on track to reach our financial targets for the year”, Corbat said in a statement.
Shares of Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) rose over 2 percent in pre-market trading after the bank reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter. The stock gained almost 3 percent in early trade.
Citi reported 2Q15 operating results of $1.45 which was a 6-cent beat to our estimate. But that figure still topped analysts’ expectations of $19.11 billion.
That absorbed costs when Citigroup settled probes in May into currency rigging, agreeing to pay US$925 million while its Citicorp unit pleaded guilty to a crime. Brazil’s antitrust agency, South Africa and South Korea also have opened inquiries into whether firms colluded in foreign-exchange markets.
Net revenue at the bank totalled $19.47 billion, compared with $19.43 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Citigroup suffered a modest drop in its bond trading division and slightly lower investment banking revenues due to lower corporate advising on mergers and other transactions.
Results in this business were boosted by a 10 percent drop in operating expenses to $4.6 billion following efficiency moves. That compares with the $181 million, or 3 cents a share, it reported in the same period of 2014.
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The bank took a $175 million charge in equities trading when it cut the value of collateral underlying loans to facilitate customer trading activity, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said on a conference call with reporters. The bank has said it expects Citi Holdings to at least break even for 2015, and it started to turn a profit in the second half of past year. Corbat has sought to make the business simpler, moving to a common technology platform and exiting some countries. In constant dollars, 4% growth in Citicorp loans was more than offset by continued declines in Citi Holdings, driven primarily by reductions in the North America mortgage portfolio and the reclassification of loans to held-for-sale in connection with previously-announced agreements to sell OneMain Financial and Citi’s retail banking and credit card businesses in Japan.
