Citigroup’s investment banking division boosted its third-quarter results, with profit up 8% and earnings handily beating analysts’ estimates.
The bank’s net income rose to $4.13 billion from $3.84 billion in the year-ago quarter and earnings per share increased about 15% to $1.42, reflecting Citi’s move to reduce its shares outstanding by 7%. Analysts had forecast earnings of $1.32 per share.
Total revenue was up 2% at $18.17 billion, topping expectations of $17.90 billion helped in part by an increase in fees earned on share sales at Citi’s investment bank and a jump in equity trading.
Investment banking revenues jumped 14% from last year to $1.23 billion, with every division in the Institutional Clients Group seeing healthy growth from last year except fixed-income trading, a line of business that has been slumping across Wall Street.
“We delivered a very strong quarter, showing the balance of our franchise by both product and geography and highlighting our multiple engines of client-led growth,” Citi CEO Michael Corbat said in a news release. “We had revenue increases in many of the products we have been investing in, tightly managed our expenses, and again saw loan growth in both our consumer and institutional businesses.”
Cost-cutting has been a big part of Citi’s post-recession stategy and expenses fell 2% in the third quarter to $10.17 billion as higher volume-related expenses and ongoing investments were more than offset by efficiency savings and the wind-down of legacy assets.
As Business Insider reports, most of the investment banking unit’s businesses “benefit from the company’s trading floors in nearly 80 markets and giant clients that require Citi’s services on a daily basis.”
In the last quarter, fixed-income, currencies, and commodities trading revenues fell 16% to $2.88 billion but equity trading revenues increased 16% to $757 million due to healthy business from cash equities, derivatives, and prime finance.
Elsewhere at Citi, global consumer banking saw revenues grow 3% from last year to $8.4 billion but net income fell 6% to $1.17 billion as credit costs rose.
