NEW YORK (AFP) – US banking giant Citigroup said Monday it had returned to profit after two years spent largely in the red, posting a profit of 4.4 billion dollars in the first quarter of this year.
Following on from blockbuster results reported by its rivals last week, the New York-based bank returned to the black after losing 7.6 billion dollars in the last quarter of 2009.
It was the firm's best quarterly result since mid-2007. The company has struggled since the start of the financial crisis and required a government bailout of 45 billion dollars to stay afloat.
The beleaguered global bank lost 1.6 billion dollars in 2009, and a whopping 27.6 billion dollars in 2008, when the collapse of rival US investment bank Lehman Brothers propelled the worst financial crisis in decades.
