Citigroup Inc will take a $300 million "repositioning charge" in the fourth quarter, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said on December 09. The charge will be taken to "resize infrastructure and capacity" throughout Citi's businesses, Gerspach said at the Goldman Sachs US financial services conference.
Citi will also add $300-400 million in loan reserves from the third quarter for energy loans, based on the expectation that oil prices will remain low, he said.
Depressed oil prices have put several US banks under pressure due to their exposure to loans to oil companies.
Citi is due to report fourth-quarter earnings on January 15. Gerspach declined to comment when asked about investment banking bonuses, saying Citi would "pay competitively".
The last time Citi took a repositioning charge as large as this was in the fourth quarter of 2014, said Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg. At that time the charge was $655 million.
Morgan Stanley said that it will take a $150 million severance charge related to workforce reductions in the fourth quarter.
The investment bank is cutting 1,200 workers world-wide, a source told Reuters, as tougher capital rules and mounting competition forces it to improve profitability, following one of its slowest quarters for bond trading since the 2008 crisis.